


The Continued failings of High One Technology

by GlowyMimic



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Elfquest
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Death, Gen, Magic, Rejected Recognition, Res one-upping said rejected Recognition
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2018-12-24 19:23:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 33,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12019374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlowyMimic/pseuds/GlowyMimic
Summary: A elfquest/Dragon Age Inquisition crossover.Res has had a bad week and it's about to get a bit worse and weird.





	1. Have magic, will travel and get into trouble

**Author's Note:**

> \- The Timeless are a type of elves from Elfquest and are immortal.  
> \- Recognition is basically a mild version of 'fuck or die' and it's purpose is to create children. In EQ canon it makes people sick if they do not give into it. The Timeless have mostly managed to make it obsolete thanks to one of their healers.  
> \- A lot of the dialog from canon characters are from the game as I use it as springboard.  
> -Res' powers, rockshaping, allows him to alter stone and rock.

The Breach roared and swirled above him, the mark on his hand responding on a smaller scale.

The soldiers were getting into position and Res felt two hard, hazel eyes drilling into the back of his head.

It was ridiculous, really! He just wanted to spend the day by himself, test some idea he had gotten and stop worrying about the brute Xirber showing up in order to beat him into the floor.

_Again_.

It wasn’t too big a demand, he had thought.

Just one day to relax after the disaster of a thoroughly rejected Recognition that he had gotten Maaldri to cancel completely, one-upping Feivin’s earsplitting rejection.

Thanks to Flying Thief, his day had devolved into total chaos.

_\-----_

_‘Get out.’_

_'You know what, Ressa?’_

_'Res. My name is Res. Not Ressa, not Resling, not Reska. Just Res. And get out! ’_

_'You spend entirely too much time working with magic. It’s going turn your mind into slush!’ Flying Thief sang. ‘It makes you mean too.’ She moved closer to him, hand going for his hair._

_Res growled and his unwelcome guest quickly removed her hand with a small laugh. ‘Oh! Is that wolf for ‘Back off, NOW?’’ She asked far too cheerfully. ‘Cone or Cinder teach you that?’_

_'Thief, I swear. If you touch anything, I’m going to skin you alive.’ Res snapped and bared his teeth at her._

_Flying Thief’s laughter told him there would be no negotiation with the aggravating Mistsinger._

_The elf woman slapped one of Res’ three crystal orbs out of the air, much to his barely restrained ire._

_‘I just wanted to be alone! Away from everybody!’ Res snapped and made an angry, strangled noise in his throat._

_The palace crystal hit the floor, shattering, its glowing pieces clinked over the floor and landed around his feet._

_One of the other orbs seemed to sense the its sibling’s destruction and hurriedly sank down to Res’ shoulder, fully breaking a stream of magic that been passing between all three orbs._

_It should have cancelled out the magic entirely, Res thought later, in a different place._

_Really, he shouldn’t have been surprised._

_The ancient, semi sentient, but often harebrained technology of the High Ones was known to completely and utterly fail the ones who used it._

_Within seconds the magic seemed to fade before violently coming back into view._

_It arched like lightning inside his small away-from-Fire-Rock-den before making contact with the shards at his feet and the orbs around him, making them shine brighter than the daystar._

_Res lost sight of his den as a pale, multi-coloured light engulfed him. Everything seemed to become drawn out, endless and ever reaching, shattering the laws the two mooned world had slammed down countless ages go._

_The ancient magic sang with absolute chaos, extreme intent and violence as it reached out, further and further, until it made contact to something equally ancient._

_Everything shifted violently, and Res realized to his growing confusion that there was no floor, no roof and no walls. Just a near eternity of movement and colours._

_When the light and magic finally dissipated, Res was nowhere to be found, leaving a dumbfounded Flying Thief alone in the den._

_Her hazel eyes flickered around briefly, wondering if she had just started a war with the Timeless._

_\-----_

\-  Elsewhere,Korcari Wilds-

Flemeth felt it.

A sharp, split-second of incredibly foreign and volatile magic twisting time and space around something as it tore its way into Thedas, heading for the Frostbacks.

No, she noted with interest. _Somebody_.

\------

Somewhere along the line, Res had covered his ears and his shut eyes.

Light and magic crashed around him with a cacophonous noise, as he suddenly felt the ground return under his feet, causing him to stagger and stumble.

‘Thief, you absolute crag!’ Res snarled as he managed to regain his balance and opened his eyes, expecting see the obnoxious Mistsinger.

What met his eyes instead was a...wall.

Res froze, his anger diminishing instantly.

‘Thief?’ He said quietly and turned around to see a very long hallway, lit by torches.

He twisted around to see more of the long hallway.

His eyes returned to look at the wall that bore large spiral-like decorations. Decorations that were carved into a dark stone the Timeless didn’t use in their buildings.

Res looked around again for a second before slamming himself into the wall behind him and flattening himself against it. Hand instantly going to the sword, Bright Wrath, which was fastened to his left leg.

He wasn’t in his den anymore.

He likely wasn’t even in the Shadowgrounds anymore.

He looked up to see one of the small orbs hovering well above his head, spinning quietly.

He briefly wondered if he had somehow been 'moved’ to the Palace of the High Ones, but shot down that thought as soon as he came up with it.

The stone he now had his hands on was cold, dark and held none of the traits that the orb above him did.

His rockshaping powers seeped into the rock and told him that he was deep inside a massive, ancient building, a temple.

His powers couldn’t reach far enough to tell him where he could get out, just that there were many walls and rooms between him and the outside.

Scowling something fierce, he looked up at the orb again.

'Come down here, you idiot!’ He hissed angrily at the it, causing it to drop down.

He hastily grabbed it and held it to his chest, its energy bleeding into his skin.

He took an unsteady breath, calming the faint spikes of panic he felt in the back of his mind.

Where was he?

How had he gotten there?

Res lifted his hands from his chest, staring down at the slightly luminous orb with the expression of a vexed parent.

Wild, unstable magic had brought him here. That much was obvious, thinking back on the magic stream Flying Thief had disturbed with her recklessness.

The shattered orb had functioned as a platform of sorts, while the two whole ones had been power and direction, driving him to the next platform.

But what had functioned as a platform in this strange place?

Res looked down to the spot where he had appeared moments ago.

There, in the floor was a circular decoration. And framed by intricate stone carvings, was a rather large, round disk of crystal.

It looked well worn, but it shone just like the small orb he held.

That explained how he had gotten there. Res stopped himself from asking himself why it was there in the first place for now, and looked from the crystal in the floor to the one he had in his hands.

'Take me back this instant!’ He hissed at it, tightening his hold slightly.

The orb’s colours shifted slightly, while the disk grew a bit brighter, but nothing else happened.

Res’ hands shook slightly as he realized he was stuck. The two crystals didn’t have the capacity to send him back.

Before panic could set in, noise reached his ears, forcing him to focus on it.

Echoed voices filled the hall, seemingly coming from all around him.

They were a mess of tones, almost continuous and definitely human in origin.

'- I swear if one of them looks at me the wrong way -’

'- It’s our divine right to-’

'- actually think they’re people? Ha!’

'-should just have locked them in their towers and burnt them.’

' -why not just kill them all? What’s the real harm?’

'- Andraste, I pray-’

'- I went to Tevinter once-’

'-shouldn’t the Divine be here by now…?’

Res shook his head, stopped focusing on the strange voices and started focusing his problems.

Mainly getting back home or staying away from whoever the voices belonged to.

Looking both ways to make sure no one were on their way, Res moved back to the crystal disk and crouched down beside it.

Letting go of the orb with one hand, he placed it above the disk, making it shine even brighter for a brief second before it seemed to lose it’s hard surface and become fluid.

Res moved the orb from his chest and released it to hover above the glowing matter.

Guided by his hand, the fluid started moving up towards the orb, the matter slipping around the sphere, before merging with it, slightly increasing its mass.

He slipped back to the wall as the crystals merged, focusing on which way to go.

The path to the right seemed to split off into two new paths, while the left path on had one.

Res didn’t get much of a choice, as he heard footsteps coming down unseen stairs to the right.

’- You think the Mage-Templar war is actually going to stop? There’s so much anger on both sides.’ Someone said, a woman, by the sound of it.

'Well, it’s possible? Ambassadors from both sides showed up. That’s something at least.’ Another woman answered.

_Left path it was._

Res took off, with the orb in tow. He just managed to get to the end of the hallway and turn around the corner when the women got off the stairs.

The orb nearly slammed into the end wall before it corrected its path and preceded to bump into Res, much to his eye-rolling exasperation.

The new hallway was much like first, only with fewer torches, leaving it darker and cold.

As carefully as he could, Res made his way through the dark hallway, with the orb in tow.

There were more strange symbols and intricate carvings on the walls. Odd statues of a valiant looking human woman and a miserable man holding his head dotted the hallway.

Soon he came to the end of the hallway. Two large double doors in his way.

Placing a hand on the wall to his right told him there was a large chamber behind the doors, and that he was no closer to finding a easier way out. He still couldn’t 'see’ which was the right way out, only that he had been moving deeper into the building.

He growled under his breath and turned around to go back the way he had come from.

'Now is the time for our victory.’ A deep, dark, male voice rang out, causing him to stop in his tracks, turn around and look back at the double doors.

’Why are you doing this? You of all people?’ A woman asked, fear and confusion clear in her voice.

Without conscious thought of doing so, Res moved back towards the doors.

'Keep the sacrifice still.’ The male voice spoke up again.

Res’ went cold as the word 'sacrifice’ reached his ears and still without thinking, placed his hands on the doors. He barely managed to stop himself from pushing them open. Worry warring with curiosity over what to do.

'Someone help me!’ The woman yelled, as some odd sizzling, crackling noise reached Res’ ears.

He ground his teeth as curiosity won out over worry and sensible fear, and made him angrily push open the doors.

There were several humans inside the dark chamber. Four of them were dressed in odd blue and silver armour and stared into the distance with incredibly empty eyes.

An old looking woman dressed in a red and white robe and an oddly large headdress, was being held up in the air and bound by what looked like red magic.

In front of her, holding a dark, green glowing orb, was a tall, sickly thin and bizarrely mangled man.

'I see…you have taken to sacrificing your own elders now? ’ Res said shakily, as everybody turned their heads towards him. He hastily looked from the blank eyed people to the man and woman.

'What…precisely are you doing?’ He continued a second later, his insane curiosity dooming him further.

Before anybody could answer, the woman tore her arm out of the red magic and knocked the green orb out of the malformed man’s hand.

Res couldn’t decide if it was because he had simply abandoned the tiniest amount of common sense at that point or it was just his insane curiosity that made him move and reach out for the orb as it clanked its way towards him.

He regretted picking up the dark orb instantly.

Absolutely foreign, screaming magic shot up his left arm, quickly followed by intense pain that forced a scream from him.

He barely had time to notice that the malformed man was flying towards him before everything became engulfed by green light and the floor underneath his feet disappeared once again.


	2. Green skies and doppelgangers

The sky was green.

Res blinked a couple of times, looking up at what he reasoned to be the sky with a baffled look. He had no recollection of ever seeing the sky in that colour.

Res tilted his head down to look at his surroundings and realized everything seemingly had a green tint to it.

He blinked a few times, trying to dispel the color. If he hadn't known better, he could have sworn his eyes were watching through an emerald.

There was something off about the area.

There was _more_ to the place than it odd colour, its jagged fang-shaped cliffs and the human statues that littered the landscape. There was... _something_ in the air itself.

It was everywhere around him...  

As he stood there it began touching his skin. Lightly at first, prickling against it like pine needles, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

It felt... _alive,_ like the magic infused Shadowgrounds back home, but infinitely more strange and unknown.

Was this what newcomers to the Shadowground felt? Magic and raw power caressing their exposed skin, curling in their hair and whispering little nothings in their ears?

It pressed against his bare skin now. It felt as real as Charring and Hviall’s hands would have.

He felt it move in his hair and press against the bruise Xirber had given him on the side of his face, like a gentle hand.

‘S-stop. Stop that!’ Res exclaimed in growing alarm and recoiled, waving his arms about to dispel the the _thing_.

He hugged himself, eyes darted around wildly.

Whatever it was, was so natural to the area that he felt like _he_ was the thing that was out of place.

\----

Something that wasn't anywhere to be seen, on the other hand, was his damn orb, he noted a few seconds later.

Res shook as blind panic welled up in him as his mind registered the last thing he remembered was being inside a massive building, in some place that wasn't the Shadowgrounds and picking up some dark orb that had...attacked him?

Res looked at his left hand for a moment. It looked normal and had no marks on it.

He pressed his thumb against the palm and felt a slight prickling in the skin, but nothing else.

He didn't remember waking up in the bizarre area. He had gone on many jaunts during his life, but he had never seen a place like the area he was now in.

All he could remember was standing around, noting the colour of the sky and just...staring at it.

A particular loud noise, a scream from some creature he couldn't begin to imagine the appearance of, shook him out of his study of the area.

Res started moving away from where he had heard the sound, carefully.

His bright, yellow-green eyes flickering around, looking out for any kind of creature that was making those noises and his orb.

At least he still had his sword, Bright Wrath.

He noticed something that looked like a glowing portal on the top of a steep rock plateau far off in the distance. It looked like stairs had been carved into it.

Res wandered towards it, noticing what looked like odd houses carved out of the dark cliffs.

They had small windows, with golden light seeping out of them. But they had no doors to enter or stairs that would allow one to go up to them.

Granted, he could just make the stairs with his powers, but the glowing portal looked much more interesting at this point.

\------  

He wasn't sure how long he had wandered, but he eventually reached the rock stairs.

He looked up at them, somewhat hesitant to start the climb.

The sound of a hundred feet shuffling over the ground behind him quickly convinced him that he really had no choice.

Looking over his shoulder, Res saw a small army of staggering figures, all reaching out after him.

The staggering figures had no faces and could best be described as 'unfinished'.

Their clothes were only halfway done and faded away into a weird blankness that could almost resemble polished stone.

In horrified confusion, Res stared at the figures and shuddered as he got a better look at them.

The part of their attire that were in place looked like... _his._ A long, pale white-bluish coat covering a dark green shirt and dark pants. The very first one had the same metal headdress as he did.

The figures were broken versions of him, moving towards him blindly, mindlessly.

His hand flew to Bright Wrath's hilt, but he stopped himself short and took another look at the approaching figures.

There was far too many of them to take on.

Despite their stumbling and staggering, the figures were bizarrely fast and would surely overwhelm him.

Res cursed and quickly started moving up the steep stairs.

As he climbed, he attempted to change the rocky steps of the stairs into obstacles for the figures, but it did little to stop them in their single-minded pursuit of him.

Cursing even more, he bolted up the steep surface as fast as he could.

\-------

After what seemed like a frantic eternity of being chased by bizarre figures that wanted to look like him, Res reached the top of the stone structure and collapsed, struggling for breath as he managed to pull up the rock behind him into a final obstacle.

He stayed there for few seconds, resting his head against the cold and clammy stone,cradling his left arm against his chest. For a brief moment not caring about the sounds of hands clawing at the rock behind him.

It felt like the nerves of his arm were on fire, pain shooting from his hand to his shoulder in long, lightning-like lines.  Was it some weird, delayed reaction to the dark orb?

'You! Oh, Andraste bless you! You're the one who stopped the ritual!' An oddly scratchy voice called out, almost drowning the sound of the footsteps of the approaching figures.

Res' head shot up to see the aged woman with the odd, tall hat from before.

She was standing some distance away from him, near the glowing, rift-like portal and looked like she had been trying to go through it.

Res guessed she must have been unsuccessful, because she hurried over to him, her long robe dragging across the clammy rock.

He stared at her in alarm as she bent down and pulled him up, hands firm on his right arm.  

'I cannot believe the Grey Wardens would join forces with such an monstrosity!' She said as she got Res got back on his feet and pulled him away from the wall. 'A Darkspawn! How can they forsake their calling and turn to aid that which they are sworn to destroy?'

Res gave her a confused, slightly alarmed look and tore himself free from her hold.

A particularly sharp jolt of pain shot up his left arm, forcing a yell out of him and making him twist in on himself as he staggered.

The woman looked taken aback at the rejection, but it was quickly replaced by more worry aimed at him. Her pale grey eyes focusing on his left arm.

'You're wounded? Is your arm broken?' She asked, making a move to go over to him again.

' _Stay_. _Stay_. Stay there. Stay over _there_.' Res ordered. He tried to keep his voice even and fought down panic while he made gestures at the woman to stay where she was. Hoping she would keep her distance, hoping he could be allowed a few seconds to collect his thoughts.

Luckily the woman seemed to understand him just fine and stayed where she.

Res was, shortly put, horribly inept at dealing with humans. Whenever he had been summoned to one of the friendly neighbouring human villages in the Shadowgrounds, he had always been accompanied by another Timeless who would be the one doing the talking.

The parts of his mind that weren't occupied with barely restrained panic and confusion, noted his chief and cousin, Darkfire had been an absolute genius when she had made learning the human language obligatory.

Res glanced over to the woman again.

She didn't seem to be remotely scared of him, just the area they found themselves in.

She was wringing her hands anxiously, eyes shifting from him and then to the surrounding area every few seconds.

Based on how aged she seemed to be, Res quickly concluded she wasn't anywhere near the threat that the Res-look-alikes seemed to be.

A small, green light, accompanied with a new dose of pain flared up from his hand, instantly breaking his line of thought.

He stared at the palm of his hand, eyes growing wider as a pulsing bright-green light moving under his skin.

_'What_.' He said quietly as his mind started reeling.

He frantically pressed his fingers against his palm, but couldn't feel any deformity caused by bizarre light.

Before he could exam his hand further or panic even more about whatever was happening, the woman's voice broke his panic.

_'Though stung with a hundred arrows, Though suffering from ailments both great and small, His Heart was strong, and he moved on_.' She sang, her voice calm and controlled.  Infinitely more controlled than he felt at the moment.

Res blinked owlish at her and tried to focus his mind on her, fearing it would go to pieces if he didn't.

'Where _...where_ are we? Do you know?' He asked a second later, when she didn't continue her singing.

The woman's eyes went from him to the greenish sky, something akin to deep-seated horror clear on her face.

'I cannot be sure, but...I believe we are in The Fade.' She said, her voice shaking at the word 'Fade'.

'The what?' Res asked, bending towards her slightly.

'The Fade. The Beyond...as the Dalish say?' The woman said, hands raised in a pleading manner.

'The Dalish?' Res shook his head, not understanding the meaning behind anything the woman said.

The woman seemed to shake slightly, eyes growing infinitely more confused.

'T-The Dalish? The elves...Your kin!' The woman sputtered, her eyes darting over to look at the side of his head, seemingly focusing on his ear.

'I've never heard that word in my entire life.' Res said, drawing himself up to his full height, taking a few steps away from her, not noticing his proximity to the rift.

An awkward silence fell over them, only broken by the sound of Res' doppelgangers' attempts to get past the stone wall he had put up.  

They were clawing at the stone, seemingly intent on tearing through the rock with their hands.

Turning his attention over to his one and only barrier, Res sucked in a unsteady breath, wondering if he could manage to add more to the wall before it was too late.

' _Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls_.' The woman murmured quietly, before he could make his way back to the wall.

She was staring at something  in the sky.

Res followed her gaze. In the distance was something that looked like a long, floating landscape. Large enough to contain a massive, dark, many-towered city.

'The Golden City, seat of the Maker, turned dark by the sins of man!' The woman shrieked, her eyes widen in what he could only describe as sheer horror.

Res rejected even thinking about what she actually meant. He shook his head and just went for full on denial.

Clearly he had had some of Dream-Whisper's strongest wine at some point and had just forgotten it about it.

The disaster with Feivin and Xirber had tempted him to drink his unpleasant memories away and he was now suffering some very weird nightmares.

_Yes_.

He could accept that. That’s what happened. He was having a Dream-apple induced nightmare. That would explain _everything_.

He’d wake up soon and see Charring’s vibrant violet-blue eyes staring into his, ready to tell him everything was going to be _fine_!

The mark on his hand snarled, pain spreading further up his arm and crawled up the side of his head, as if to inform him it was no demented dream.

Pain crawled over his head, digging into his mind like his uncle's needles would dig into tanned hide.

Everything was real, he was in an unknown area, far away from Charring and was being attacked by hostile and foreign magic.

His mind crackled.

\-------------

In dealing with his own panic, pain and confusion, Res had failed to notice the sound of something massive moving in the darkness.

'RUN! RUN WHILE YOU CAN! TELL THEM! WARN THEM!' The woman yelled at him, tearing his attention briefly back to her.

Her hand shot towards him, shoving him towards the rift as something, _somebody_ he recognized as his worst nightmare, reached out of the shadows and dragged her out of his sight.

One of his doppelgangers clambered over the rock wall just as the aged woman disappeared into the dark green shadows.

It landed with a heavy thud on the clammy rock-floor. Its headgear, _his_ headgear, slamming against the rock with a sickeningly painful sound.

As it tried to get up on ungainly legs, it lifted its head to look at him.

Res felt his mind spin further and nearly collapse on itself.

His doppelganger had looked 'unfinished' before. In the few minutes he had talked to the woman, it had managed to finish its transformation.

Something with his face was staring back at him, with blank and lifeless eyes. It started to move in a stumbling manner towards him, hands reaching out for him.

Res' face twisted with horror and backed away from his look-a-like, cradling his left arm.

It was shaking violently from pain that was becoming worse by the second.

' ** _The stars, Res. We will go back to the stars. And you will get us there_**.' A cold, callus, male voice said from the green darkness of the area.

'SHUT UP!' Res yelled before he could even register doing so.  He felt ice cold terror and rage wash over him.

He _knew_ the voice. Five millennia later and he _still_ recognized that voice.

Grandfather Bailon’s voice rung through his head, stirring memories that were tied to an anger nearly as old as Res was.

The next thing he knew was blinding pain that sent him into the ground screaming.

The magic embedded in his left hand tore through him at full force as it broke free, becoming bright green tendrils that hissed like lighting.

Res' mind unraveled under the attack, instincts causing him to send his own magic to fight the strange one.

His look-a-like dived after him and would likely have captured him, if something glowing and gold hadn't interfered.

An explosion of light blasted the doppelganger right off the stone platform.

Over the sound of his own mind cracking, the sound of the green lightning roaring and his own cursing, Res heard the woman's voice again.

'Run! You still have a chance! I will keep them back!'

He managed to focus on the glowing shape for long enough to register it looked like the woman. The glowing specter had the same large hat.

She was pointing towards the rift, urging him towards it.

It didn't take too much to convince him.

Res picked himself up from the floor and bolted towards the rift just as the rest of the doppelgangers climbed over the rock.

\-----

Res landed with a thud on black blasted rock, the mark on his hand quieting to a sizzling as his own magic forced it back to its source.

His mind railed against everything that had happened the last few hours and viciously started ripping out memories and buried them in the deepest part of his mind before they could cause more damage.

He didn't hear the approaching footsteps of three soldiers as he fell into a restless sleep.


	3. Crash course in human relations and torn skies.

-Haven, cells beneath the Chantry.-

_Absolutely nothing had gone the way it should have._

Solas' expression turned into a deep frown as he studied the hand belonging to the Conclave’s only survivor.

The man, an elf, had somehow been in contact with his orb and now had the Anchor embedded in his hand.

‘Did you find any items with him?’ He asked the guard that stood by. ‘A staff? Anything?’

‘Nothing beside that sword Thevot nearly lost his fingers to.’ One of the guards replied. ‘Why?’

‘The mark on this man’s hand is likely from a magic item of some sort.’ Solas explained. ‘If we had that we might be able to close the hole in the sky. Are you sure you didn’t find _anything_ while you were there?’

‘No.’ The guard said with a growl. ‘Listen, we didn’t have time. We only went in there because we heard voices and then we saw him fall out of that rift.’

Solas cursed the men with a thought.

_If they had just looked around they would likely have found his orb and he would have..._

He shook his head and refocused on the man’s hand. It wouldn’t have helped. He was no closer to being able to unlock it now than he was a year ago.

All he could do now was keep this man alive.

\-----

The first time the Breach expanded and the Anchor sent a jolt up its new holder arm, Solas almost dropped the man’s hand.

The stranger had magic of his own and it slammed down on the Anchor with a roar, trying to stop it from spreading.

Solas reached out to the magic with his own, to show it how to possibly contain the Anchor.  But the magic proved to be almost deaf to his own. It was like shouting at a dragon during a tempest.

An hour passed.

The two magics fought, pushing against each other while Solas tried to get the Anchor under what little control he could.

The Anchor would spread as the Breach above would expand and the stranger’s magic would try to drive it back to its source. Slamming against the Anchor’s magic like a hammer in a smithy and then retreat.

The stranger having magic that strong was odd, or alarming, but something else was even more curious.

'Any guess to why he only has four fingers, Chuckles?' Varric asked by the cell door.

'Not even one. It’s _very_ curious.' Solas said as he pulled back his magic.

He had gotten the Anchor to stabilize to some degree. There was only so much he could with the Breach still expanding. The two magics would continue to fight against each other until it was stopped.

The only survivor of the Conclave’s destruction groaned in his sleep as Solas put his hand down beside him.

Solas got up and moved over to the cell’s door and caught the eye of a nearby guard.

‘Tell Seeker Cassandra her prisoner is regaining consciousness.’  He said, picking up his backpack.

‘Any idea when he’ll wake up?’ The oldest of the four asked.

‘Soon, I think. But, I’m afraid I’m not much of healer...’ Solas admitted.

‘Is he a mage?’ The guard asked, arms crossed. ‘Should we try and find a Templar for this?’

‘I think they’re all busy fighting or dead at the moment.’ Varric said.

‘He does have magic.’ Solas said and looked back at the sleeping man. ‘What kind, I can’t tell you.’

Solas eyed the man with suspicion. What he could sense of the man’s powers worried him greatly.

The man turned on his side, grumbling.

Solas left the cells with Varric, fighting down a growing fear that was starting to gnaw on his nerves.

His hand tightened around his staff.

‘Afraid the Seeker’s going to show up and run you through, Chuckles?’ Varric asked, likely noticing a slight tremor in his hold.

‘She did threaten to have me executed.’ Solas replied and shook his head. If he helped, they would have less reason to harm him.

\-----

Res woke up slowly and found himself sitting in the middle of a dark room, surrounded by four humans that held their swords towards him. His hands were locked in massive iron shackles.

He blinked in confusion, eyes going over the humans.

They didn’t look anything like the humans in the Shadowgrounds. Their clothes, armour really, looked too advanced. Closer to what the Timeless and the Silver Hill’s trolls could make.

The chamber was something well beyond their human neighbour’s skill as well. The cells and the metal used to make them was closer to what the trolls made.

Res closed his eyes, thoughts racing.

 _Where was he_?

On his hand, bright green magic snarled, sizzling through skin and bone, trying to spread up his arm.

‘Oh.’ Res mumbled quietly to himself, remembering.

Images of Flying Thief smacking one of his crystal orbs out of its place and into the floor surfaced in his mind.

It had shatter around his feet, the magic fading before violently returning to view and flaring, reaching for the broken pieces at his feet.

One of the soldiers moved away from him and towards the door which they opened.

‘Call for the Seeker! He’s awake!’ The soldier called to somebody outside the room.

The foreign magic’s loud snarling warped the words in Res’ ears.

They were calling for a slayer?

_Oh. Of course._

He shouldn’t have been surprised. He had always been told the human outside the Shadowgrounds were seemingly inherently hostile and dangerous. Murderous.

The fact the Hoan-G'Tay-Sho tribe had tried to abduct people to sacrifice to Blue Mountain hadn’t helped this notion.

As he tested the shackle’s hold on his arms, his memories came back one at time, slowly and growing fainter.

White light had engulfed him and displaced him, far, far, far away.

‘ _Thief, you utter crag_ .’ Res growled, balling his hands into fists. ‘ _You_ c _ouldn’t just leave me alone.’_

The mark on his hand snarled and crawled further up his arm, almost reaching his head.

His own magic driving back the foreign magic felt just as bad as when it advanced. It felt like sticky cockleburs being dragged under his skin.

He had tried to find a way out of the temple, Res recalled. Sneaking around the dark temple’s hallways, avoiding nearby humans, eyeing the odd statues dotting the hallways.

The foreign magic snarled, making him cringe.

He had heard something, Res thought. Something had distracted him.

His memories were growing fainter and crumbled as he tried to gather them.

‘- _you doing this? You of all people?_ ’ A voice asked in his head. A woman’s?   
\- _He was looking at two massive, wooden double doors and walking towards them, expression angry -_

He heard footsteps approaching from the outside hallway.

\- _‘Someone help me!’ The woman cried out and made him push open the doors -_

_\- Something dark clacked its way over the floor, towards him and...-_

The door to the chamber slid opened, making Res open his eyes and look up.

Two women strode into the chamber, both looking very disgruntled.

The first one in the door was tall, had short, black hair that ended in an odd braid that was curled around her head. She wore thick leathers and metal armour. A massive, flaming eye decorated her chest armour, staring at him unblinkingly.

The woman’s own gaze was severe. A sword hung on belt on her waist, gleaming in the light that came from the room’s torches.

 _The slayer_ , Res thought as the woman moved towards him and circled around him.

He fully expected her pull her sword when she walked around to his back and just run him through then and there.

But she kept walking and came to stand at his left side.

The other woman’s face was framed by a purple shawl, and wore a long chain-mail coat.   
Her shawl was held together by a brooch, decorated with the same wide opened eye as her companion’s armour did.   
  
She stopped a few feet away from him and regarded him with a more calculating look.

The Slayer bent down until her face was near his ear.

‘Tell me why we shouldn’t kill you now?’ She asked angrily and started moving past him.

‘Why would any reason I give matter to you?’ Res asked shakily, expression growing slightly puzzled.

To his knowledge, humans outside the Shadowgrounds cared only for their own well-being, pleasing their gods and were bent on continuing the cycle of bloodily murdering the other two legged beings they had to contend with.

‘The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead, except _you_.’ She turned and pointed at him.

Res pulled his shoulders up to his ears.

‘Conclave? The...building? Temple? You think I’m responsible for its destruction?’ He asked, struggling to comprehend the information he was being given. ‘It...its been destroyed?’

‘Explain _this._ ’ The Slayer snarled, bending down and roughly grabbed hold of his shackle to pull his arms up above his head.

The magic flared brightly and sizzled, making her drop his shackle just as roughly.

‘I...I-I can’t. It’s not _mine_ or my creation.’ Res stammered, trying to ignore the growing tendril of pain that were once again crawling up his arm and feeling of his own magic trying to force it back.

The Shawled woman moved up to his left side, going around his back like the Slayer had done. They circled around him, slowly.

Res curled in on himself slightly. This was _not_ what he had expected.

Hysteric, screaming men calling out to their made up god to inform it of an incoming sacrifice and knives to the throat or the heart had been the horror stories he had heard. Asking questions and demanding answers had never been been part of it.

Really, it was very straightforward in the old stories. See elf, kill elf. Torture it if dumb-unseen-all-ruling-thing was really feeling _mean_.

But here he was, getting a crash course in human relations.  

‘What do you mean _you can’t_?!’ The Slayer woman demanded. There was an odd faltering in her voice. Like things weren’t going the way it should for her either.

‘I don’t know what that is or why it’s embedded in my hand.’ Res explained hastily while trying to figure out if he could possibly make a hole beneath him to escape the two circling women.

He didn’t get much of a chance to start wondering if he could disappear fast enough as the Slayer came to a stop in front of him.

‘You’re lying!’ She said furiously, reached down and grabbed his shoulders hard enough to bruise. Res shut his eyes and pulled his arms up between him and woman.

 _Really_ , Res thought, fingers digging into the palms of his hands, why was there so much talking and why did him being truthful matter to her? She had sword on her hip!

Maybe this was a new kind of torture?

From what the others told him, their neighboring humans had grown calm and peaceful by being in the Shadowgrounds. The peace had allowed them to focus on building and creating.

Did the ones outside only move forward in their ability to murder and torture?

Mother Jirora would be most displeased if he came back to Fire-Rock without a body. She had spent _two_ years making it _._

‘We need him, Cassandra.’ The Shawled one said and pulled the Slayer off and away from him.

Res let his hands fall onto the floor and dug his fingers into stone beneath him.

There was more stone slabs under him. He tilted his head to the side. Further down, beneath a layer of solid rock, there seemed to be an odd network of tunnels? Far reaching and unused from what he could tell.

He _was_ fast and the two women were further away from him. The guards were even further away. He could shape big hole right under the surface and slip through when it was big enough for him to be in.

‘-pened?’ The Shawled one asked, moving towards him again. _Too_ close, his plan crumbled.

‘What? Didn’t hear, panicking here?’ Res exclaimed and curl in on himself so much his head touched the floor.

‘Do you remember what happened?’ The woman repeated as her companion moved to start circling him again.

Res reached for his bizarrely vague memories.

‘The sky was green.’ He started with a grimace. ‘And I...remember running. _Things_ chased me and then was... a woman?’

‘A woman?’ The Shawled asked, crossing her arms.

Res’ memories crumbled as much as his plan and his understanding of the two women’s behaviour.

‘She reached out to me, helped me, but then she...she...I-I don’t... I don’t remember, it fades away and breaks off.’ He went on, shaking his head. ‘What does it matter?’ He whispered the last part to himself and leaned back up into a sitting position, abandoning his plan altogether.

A short silence fell over the chamber.

‘Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I’ll take him to the rift.’ The Slayer sighed and urged the Shawled one towards the door.

\------

‘I’m assuming you’re taking me to your place of bloody sacrifice?’ Res asked with genuine curiosity as the Slayer bound his hands with rope.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman’s expression became puzzled for a split second before falling back into anger.

She pulled him up and dragged him towards the door without answering him.

‘What _precisely_ happened to this conclave you believe I destroyed?’ Res tried again as they made their way down a long and dark hallway,

‘It’s easier if I show you.’ The woman said in a quiet tone.

Res bumped his head against a low hanging brazier just as they reached the stairs that would lead up to a long hall.

\----

The Slayer half guided, half pulled Res up the stairs and over towards a wooden door.

‘How many are dead?’ A woman in a red and white dress asked another as Res was pulled along by his soon-to-be murderer.

‘Over five hundred.’ The other woman answered, bowing her head, tilting a oddly big hat. ‘Possibly as much as a thousand. We’re still going through the documents of attendees.’

 _Five hundred to a thousand_?

The numbers made Res stumbled and turned his head to look at the two humans.

 _‘Five hundred to a thousand dead_?’ He whispered, eyes growing wide.

The Slayer woman seemed to think he was struggling against her and gave his arm a brutal tug to force him along.   

Res’ mind reeled. Outside-Humans would start blood feuds if _one_ of them got killed or just  plainly humiliated.

He couldn’t even try and dream up what they would do at the loss of a thousand.

\------

A soldier followed them down the hall to open the doors for them as the Slayer was still holding on to him with a grip that would leave marks.

It momentarily, blissfully made Res’ mind jump back to when he had been a mad youth and it had been Zarvee’s task to keep him in Fire-Rock and stop him from harming Bailon’s lot.

She had always enjoyed herself _immensely_.

Their tussles had been a slightly more acceptable way to dissipate the fury he had for his mother’s father and every single elf from his grandfather’s tribe.

Zarvee would be cross if he returned to Fire-Rock without a body. Spirits _bored_ her immensely.

\------

The door opened, letting in blinding light and air cold from a never ending winter.

Res raise his bound hands to shield his eyes from the light, while the Slayer released her hold on him and walked ahead of him.

‘We call it the Breach.’ She explained as his eyes adjusted and allowed him to look up at a massive, dark, swirling storm that had its source in a hole in the sky.

Things he believed to be boulders hovered in the air.

‘It’s a massive hole into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour.’ The woman went on. ‘It’s not the only such rift. Just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave.’

‘You think I blew up your temple _and_ somehow made that _thing_ ?’ Res stared at the Breach incredulously and held up his marked hand. ‘With _this_?!’

The Breach rumbled above them as if to answer him.

Res shook his head, having trouble understanding what he was actually seeing and having a harder time taking in all the information the woman was giving him.

A temple has been destroyed, a staggering number of people were dead, there was a hole in the sky and he was being blamed for it all.

‘An explosion did _that?_ It tore a hole in the damn _sky_ ?!’  Res exclaimed, his eyes briefly finding the Slayer’s before darting back to the Breach. ‘An _explosion_ can do that?!’

‘This one did.’ The slayer said and turned back to face him. Res’ gaze almost met hers, but it quickly darted up to the Breach again. ‘Unless we act, the Breach may grow until it swallows the world.’

The Breached flared and roared, green lightning strikes arcing downwards towards the earth directly beneath it. The mark on his hand responded in kind, green tendrils blasting up his arm, tearing a scream out of him and sending him to his knees.

Res groaned and balled his hand into a fist, fingers digging into his own skin.

He had _just_ wanted to be alone today.

Hviall and Charring understood! They would let him be for a while and would greet him with open arms when he came back to Fire-Rock and their beds.

He was on his third round of cursing Flying Thief for messing with his orbs when the Slayer crouched down in front of him.

He kept his eyes focused on his hand. He didn’t feel like he needed to see the blame and fury in the human’s gaze.

‘Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads...and it is killing you.’ The woman told him firmly.

Res took a shuddering breath at the Slayer’s words and shook his head slightly, in a weak attempt to deny everything that had happened today. He couldn’t even remember half of it!

‘It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn’t much time.’ He heard the woman say.

‘You think I did all of _this_ .’ Res said, his voice crackling, as he struggled to get a hold on his left hand with his right. ‘To _myself_.’

‘Not intentionally.’ The woman replied calmly. ‘Something _clearly_ went wrong.’

‘ _Clearly_.’ Res repeated sourly and felt it was the understatement of his life.


	4. Bad (old) times and bridges

**4 .Bad (old) times and bridges.**

The Slayer kept talking. What she said, Res didn’t hear as he tuned her out.

He sat in the snow, staring at the glowing mark, legs growing cold from the snow beneath him.

He dug his fingers into the palm of his marked hand and took a deep breath.

Then another.

So much was happening and he barely understood any of it. 

He had expected he would be able to chase off Flying Thief at  _ some  _ point. Or she would have left by herself when it became obvious he  _ really  _ didn’t want company today.

He had expected he would have been able to work out his idea, see if it was possible, be happy about it, get something to eat, sleep, go back to Fire-Rock the next morning and be unhelpful in the garden together with Charring. 

Maybe spend time with Cone and go looking for those little fanged deer she liked.

_ Instead, he was going to die. _

Either by some awful magic mark that had embedded itself in his hand and was currently making war with his own magic.

Or, and this was far more likely, he was going to be murdered by humans.

He would have laughed at how ridiculous it all was, but he was sure the Slayer would take it the wrong way and beat him into the ground. 

_ Like Xirber had. _

He sincerely hoped the damage Charring and Hviall inflicted on the brute still  _ hurt _ . 

He was pulled out of his malicious thoughts when he felt the Slayer’s hand on his shoulder.

\------

The elf flinched away from her in surprise, arms flying up to protect himself from her. 

‘You said this thing might be the key? To  _ what _ ?’ He asked behind his shielding arms. 

‘To closing the Breach. Whether that’s possible is something we shall find out shortly. It is our only chance, however. And yours.’ Cassandra said.

‘...I’ve done  _ nothing _ . This is  _ not  _ my doing.’ The elf said sharply, shaking his head and lowering his arms. ‘I know no magic that can rip holes into the sky.’

‘You wish to prove you’re innocent? This is the only way.’ Cassandra said, pulling at man’s shoulder, trying to make him up look up. The man roughly battered her arm away with his bound ones. 

He made an odd, strangled noise that could have been laughter.

‘Why  _ does  _ my innocence  _ matter  _ to you?’ He hissed and kept his eyes on his hand. His long, dark hair fell over his shoulders, further hiding his face.  ‘Why are you even entertaining that notion I might be innocent? A ludicrous amount of your people are dead and here’s an elf for you to slaughter so  _ everything  _ becomes alright again.’

Cassandra’s lips twisted.

‘You think we’re going to execute you for something you haven’t actually done?’ She asked, narrowing her eyes.

‘I’m an elf, Slayer. What I have or haven’t done is  _ irrelevant  _ to your kind. All that matters is my blood running down one of your altars and seeping into the ground to calm some barking god of yours.’ He said, shaking his head. ‘You make it sound like I have a choice in the matter. I don’t. I’m going to die no matter what happens.’

‘None of us has a choice.’ Cassandra said sternly, reaching for him and pulling him to his feet.

\----

Res looked around the area as the Slayer lead him along a snow-less path.

He was in a small village, filled with wooden houses and tents. Several sorts of big pine trees dotted the area.

The village lay at the foot of a mountain range, he noted as he turned his head to look at the building they had come out of. The entire area looked like it was surrounded by mountains, reminding him of the Wreath mountains that surrounded the Shadowgrounds.

Several humans were gathered by some tents the Slayer took him past. He had never seen so many face filled with blame. And it was all aimed at him.

‘They have decided you guilt. They need it.’ She said, possibly noticing his glancing at them.

‘Can’t have been a hard decision.’ Res grumbled, eyes going over the people as he was moved along. ‘ _ Something went wrong, here’s an elf, let’s murder it _ .’

Most of them were soldiers, while three could have been villagers. A bald man with a orange-ish beard, a woman with short auburn hair and a...well, he wasn’t sure. 

A young, spindly person with short, dark, brushed back hair.

Res could have sworn they had rather long ears.

‘The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry. The Conclave was hers.’ The Slayer explained.

Res was lead down five steps and in-between a cabin and another tent. The village was barricaded by a wall of trees that were bound tightly together.

‘Her temple?’ Res inquired in a tired murmur, indulging the Slayer in her ‘talk’ game. 

She took him down another set of stairs, walls rising on either side of them. He looked up and noticed what looked like a massive stone...dog?

‘Her idea.’ The Slayer corrected and took him past three more houses and down a third set of stairs that lead to a tall gate. Another soldier pushed it open for her and Res was lead out into a frozen, rocky land.

\----

Cassandra lead the strange elf down the path that would take them to the valley.

While the man was clearly upset and angry, he was also immensely curious about his surroundings. Like they were completely unfamiliar to him. He was currently craning his neck to look at Harritt‘s smithy.

She tugged at his arm, pulling his attention back to her, mostly to hurry him along.

‘What was the purpose of this...conclave?’ Her prisoner asked, still refusing to look at her.

‘Peace. It was a chance for peace between mages and templars.’ Cassandra replied.

He moved his head slightly in her directing, one yellow-green eye finding hers under a mess of wild-ish dark brown hair that obscured his face.

‘ _ Maighes  _ and  _ timlars _ ?’ He repeated the words in a way that told her he had never heard them or spoken them before.

It struck her as odd, as  _ wrong _ , but she shook it off for now.

‘She brought their leaders together. Now they are dead.’ She said as the gates to the bridge section came into view. ‘We lash out, like the Sky.’ She went on, just as a soldier opened the doors, allowing them entry.

‘...not an uncommon thing for your kind to do, I’m told.’ Her prisoner mumbled under his breath.

‘But we must think beyond ourselves. As she did.’ Cassandra said and let go of the man’s arm as they moved unto the bridge. ‘Until the Breach is sealed.’ 

She moved slightly ahead of him, reached for a small knife she had attached to her belt and turned on the him.

His eyes widened in shock and he quickly jumped away from her and flattened himself against the now closed doors.

‘ _ HERE?! _ ’ He shrieked at her in an odd outrage, finally turning his face up to look her square in the eye. ‘This is a bridge! I doubt it’s a fitting place for my murder! You’ll make the thing in the sky mad!’ His eyes darted over to Breach and back to her. ‘Madder!’

Cassandra blinked at the elf. Just  _ where  _ was he from? Where did human still have that violent clashes with elves?

Before she could ask, she caught sight of large, dark bruise he had on the side of his face. It had been obscured by his hair until now.

‘You honestly think I’m just going to murder you? Is that really how humans deal with you where you’re from?’ Cassandra asked, pushing her observation to the side. ‘They kill you on sight?’

‘Just the ones outside.’ The man answered flatly, while Cassandra took hold of his arm and severed the rope binding his wrists.

‘There  _ will  _ be a trial. I can promise no more.’ She said as she stepped away from the now very much bewildered elf.

The bewilderment vanished within a second, replaced angry disbelief.

‘A  _ trial _ ? Your kind will give  _ me  _ a  _ trial _ ? What’s the  _ point!? _ Your people are dead! I’m an elf! My actual involvement is  _ irrelevant _ ! My blood will flow even  _ if _ you find proof I had nothing to with what happened here!’ Her prisoner exclaimed, his lips curling into a hysterical smile, as if like the very idea of a trial was ridiculous.

Cassandra ignored his words. It was his way of dealing with an insane situation. Biting, jabbing and yelling.

‘Come. It’s not far.’ She said, motioning for him to follow her and started moving across the bridge.

\------

Res took a deep breath to calm down. 

He hadn’t really noticed before, but the Breach sounded like an ongoing thunderstorm that was drowning a harsh and howling wind.

Green light from the Breach crackled through the clouds, sometimes like rings in water.

It was almost pretty, in a way.

He looked back to the bridge. It was wide and filled with people, crates and a fair amount of rubble.

To his left were three heavily armored soldiers, two of which were lying with their backs against the bridge’s wall. 

They weren’t moving.

The third one lay in front of them and twitched violently every few seconds, but said nothing.

A group of nine stood in front of man dressed in white and red.

‘These truths the Maker has revealed to me...’ The man said as Res moved past him and a soldier who was curled up into a ball on the floor. 

The soldier kept tipping themselves back and forth, making a little laughing noise every few seconds.

It was a mad sound, made by a broken mind that seen too much in a short time.

‘Where are you taking me?’ Res questioned, as he ran up next to the Slayer and fell into step with her.

‘Your mark needs to be tested on something smaller than the Breach.’ She explained, nodding towards the lands further in.

They passed another man who sat off to the side of the bridge, hunched over several bound body bags. Further up there were a whole line of them.

They passed a woman wrote down names and numbers with a shaking hand.

‘Open the gate! We are headed into the valley.’ The Slayer suddenly called, tearing Res out of his observing.

The next gate lead out to a long, winding path.

Heavily armed soldiers stood guard behind hastily put up barricades, one of which was a toppled over cart.

‘Maker, it’s the end of the world!’ A young man cried as he and two others ran towards them, back towards the bridge.

Res kept pressing his thumb into the palm of his marked hand, eyeing the scar-like groves that were starting to show.

It was killing him, the Slayer told him. Beside a little humming in his skin, it was being quiet for the moment.

Res focused his powers on the thing. Magic rushed down his abused arm and surround the thing, like a nest.

He made the magic stay there, to see if it could stop the next jolt that would come.

The road was littered with random items from burning carts and the bodies of dead soldiers, different from the ones he had seen before. These had what looked like flaming swords on their armours.

‘Templars. Killed by demons.’ The Slayer said, catching his lingering gaze.

Res was about to ask her what she meant when she said  _ demons _ , but the Breach roared, sending green lighting downwards.

His mouth snapped shut as the mark responded as he had predicted and shot its own lightning up his arm.

His own magic buffered it greatly, but not completely. He felt his whole body lock up.

‘Oh, this day is just my  _ favourite _ ...’ Res grumbled through gritted teeth, trying to keep his balance. 

He imagined he looked like he was doing an impression of his father’s goats that would freeze up when something scared them. 

Said goats also tended to fall over. Which he also did an impression of and slammed into the frozen earth with a snarl.

‘Truly, a lovely day to end an awful and stupid week.  _ Thanks Feivin _ .’ Res muttered bitterly and turned his eyes towards the Breach. ‘I’m not sure who I hate more right now. Thief, Feivin or  _ you _ .’

The Breach crackled in response.

‘Mrrrh. No, Feivin outranks you,  _ still _ .’ Res mumbled and felt his body ease out of its paralyzed state.

The Slayer hurried back to him. He expected her to brutally kick him to get him to move.

Instead she just grabbed hold of arm and helped him up.

‘The pulses are coming faster now.’ She said, and steadied him.

Res noted it sounded oddly close to something a young Wolfbane had once told a pregnant Fire-Fern. 

Last he heard, the healer still had nightmares of Fire-Fern snarling at them.

\------

‘The larger the Breach grows, the more rifts appear, the more demons we face.’ The Slayer said, as another gate came into view.

‘You said that before. You mean  _ my  _ kind is falling out of that thing?’ Res asked, as he refocused his magic to better temper the mark’s jolts.

The woman turned her head and gave him a very puzzled looked.

‘No.  _ Demons.  _ Not elves.’ She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

‘Which is what your kind calls  _ mine _ .’ Res replied. ‘At least those outside the Wreath Mountains. Which you  _ must _ be.’

‘You’re called  _ demons _ ?’ The Slayer asked and shook her head, expression becoming a deep frown.

‘Well, we  _ were _ .’ Res corrected himself. ‘It’s been about...four thousand and eighty-nine years since we’ve had any major conflicts with hostile humans.’   
  
Res’ expression started mirroring the Slayer’s. Something was  _ utterly  _ wrong here.

‘Dare I ask what kind of conflicts?’ The Slayer sighed, her expression growing darker.

‘The horror stories tell of screaming men, brutal murders, torture and blood seeping into the ground.’ Res said airily.

‘ _ Sacrifices _ ? You think  _ we  _ do  _ that _ ?’ The woman asked, looking offended.

‘We haven’t heard differently from those who found and stayed with us.’  Res said, and recalled the tired faces of Caniko and the other Vine Weavers when they were found by Feannec and Stormcaller. ‘There’s been bloodshed on both sides, but  _ we  _ never tortured or sacrificed anybody.’ 

‘I see.’ The woman said, turning her head to look at the gate they were headed towards. ‘That...explains your behavior.’

‘If it helps? You don’t look or behave like the humans who did that.’ Res said and nodded to her armour. ‘The ones outside our land don’t know how to make metal blades.’

He touched the side of the shield she had on back. ‘They can’t make anything close to this. The last time I was out and about, they were still using wooden clubs as weapons.’  He pointed to her sword.

The Slayer mouthed the words “wooden clubs” with a look of disbelief.

An deep silence settled over them, leaving them to listen to the Breach’s crackling and thundering.

‘Tell me something? How did I survive a blast that has torn the sky asunder?’ Res asked, deciding he preferred listening the Slayer talking over the Breach’s screaming.

‘They say you...fell out of a rift, then fell unconscious.’ The woman said, tone oddly careful. ‘They say a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was.’

\-  _ Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls.- _

Res shook his head at the voice that drifted up from the back of his mind. It sounded like a woman. Aged and very scared.

‘Something wrong?’ The woman asked, noticing the head shake.

‘Everything is wrong.’ Res replied, pressing his hand to the side of his head. ‘Now I’m just recalling words I’ve never heard.’ 

‘What? What words?’ She asked, hand on his elbow. A firm hold, not painful.

‘ _ Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls?’  _ He looked back at her with a puzzled expression. ‘Do...your souls come from wells?’

‘ _ That’s from the Chant of Light... _ ’ The woman murmured. ‘And you’ve never heard it?’

Res shook his head, looked to the left side of the bridge and noticed what appeared to be frozen waterfall.

The weather never allowed for such things in the Shadowgrounds. They had gentle winters.

Maybe he  _ was  _ in the Frozen Mountains? He never had been allowed to explore it fully. If It wasn’t dear Darkfire saying no, it would be their nine High Ones.

‘Everything farther in the valley was laid waste, including the Temple of Sacred Ashes. I supposed you’ll see soon enough.’ The Slayer said as they passed another burning cart and more dead bodies.

They entered the gate which lead them to a shorter bridge. More soldiers were standing at the other end of it, weapons raised and ready for more battle.

They had just gotten past the middle of the bridge when one of the Breach’s green flame orbs struck it, instantly killing the soldiers and blasting a few of them right off the bridge.

The bridge crumbled under their feet, sending the elf and human down to the frozen lake beneath them.


	5. Demonic communication and grievous misuse of weapons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ice-Cinder and Hviall is the same person btw. Hviall is Ice-Cinder's soul name, a true name that shouldn't be said out loud when others around, which is why Res switches it up.

Arms curled around his head, Res groaned in both pain and annoyance as he rolled down the broken bridge and onto ice.

His ribs felt bruised and made him curse Feivin as he rolled over onto his side, this time to get up from the ice.

His long coat wasn’t much help. It was warm, had ample pocket space, but it offered no protection.

‘This is going _well_...’ He grumbled as he got up on unsteady legs and looked over to see the Slayer getting up as well.

A sound from above pulled their attention towards the Breach just in time to see another green, flaming orb falling towards them.

It blasted into higher ground above them, almost taking down two trees, tore through the ground and slammed into the frozen lake.

Green smoke and fire sputtered on the ice as dark green crystal shot up into the air.

Res staggered back as something with grey, crumbled skin, long arms and clawed hands manifested in the flames.

‘Demons! Stay behind me!’ The Slayer yelled as she pulled her sword and readied her shield, snarling as she charged the thing.

More of the fire and crystal erupted near Res and another demon manifested, it’s dark eyes locked on him.

He could feel the thing’s emotions, what it had of emotions, anyway. It came off it in waves, agony and rage all mixed together into a storm that engulfed the being’s mind.

He took a couple steps back while the true-demon moved towards him in a lurching manner. It did not look like an elf, but his ancestors had been shapeshifters. A formless people that changed what they look like as often as a reasonable person changed their clothes. _It could be incredibly weird, angry elves_.

*Hello?* Res sent at it, carefully, gently in tone, as it came into striking distance and raised its claws to rend.

The demon froze mid swing.

They stood there in silence while the Slayer tore into the other demon.

*Can you hear me?* Res sent,wringing his hands, his eyes staring unblinkingly into the demon’s dark gaze.

The were no response from the demon, it stayed as it was, frozen in mid swing.

Res cursed his own curiously that always drowned out any fear and took a few steps closer to the being. Carefully, he reached out with his right hand, his fingertip touching the demons odd skin.

The demon lurched away from him, its arms falling to its side. It tilted its head in an odd manner. It turned around suddenly and started moving away from him as fast as it possibly could.

*Where are you going?* Res sent, head tilting to side. The demon’s speed actually seemed to increase by a fraction and moved towards the Slayer who had just slain the other demon.

Res looked down to his left leg. The straps that had held Bright Wrath were empty, he noted with a frown.

He made to move towards the fleeing demon and help the Slayer bring it down, but stopped himself.

The woman _had_ told him to stay behind her. ‘Stay put’ _really_ , and he had no weapon.

He did have his magic, but it was terribly busy dealing with the mark.

His gaze shifted from the battling woman to the reflective ice.

The demon had no mouth, just cold and dry skin that seem to have been fused together where there should have been a mouth. He wasn’t sure what he had touched when he sent to the being, but it was not kin.

Res took note of his appearance. He looked miserable. Exhausted, frazzled and was sporting a few new bruises.

His conflict with Feivin had been bad, Xirber attacking him had rattled him immensely and he had lost sleep over both things.

And now he was _somewhere_ unknown, being lead towards a hole in the sky.

His right hand went to the side of his face, gingerly touching a older bruise he had gotten earlier that week.

Maaldri had mentioned she could easily heal it, but he hadn’t let her.

She had stared at him in mixture of surprise and confusion.

_‘You’re willing to let me try and halt Recognition, cancel it, but you want to keep that ugly little thing from that ugly little brute?’ She asked him as he sat in front of her on the floor of her house._

He had just nodded at her and winced as the desert born healer let her powers sink into him, silencing a screaming, blind instinct.

A few of the others said he had acted too fast. Much too fast. They understood, but _still_.

‘ _She’s young! She would have come around!’_ The eternal jovial Marakka had said.

He knew why he said it. The mood had soured incredibly fast towards their newfound cousins after Xirber had attacked him and a fair few had outright said they should sail away from the evergreen island.

‘ _Not all Recognition goes fluid, Res. You were just...lucky the other times._ ’ His own sister had said.

Res scuffed. He hadn’t been _lucky_ . He had just Recognized very _reasonable_ women. Like Cone! No nonsense there. Feivin was star-eyed and intensely caught up on her first Recognized mate was the one and only.

‘ _You’re a mistake! A mistake!_ ’ She had yelled, _so very dramatically_.

He watched as his reflection looked just a bit more tired and stressed.

\-----

‘What were you doing?!’ Cassandra roared as she marched towards her prisoner, sword raised to his throat. ‘Trying to become friends with it?!’

He looked up and made her stop in her tracks. On the bridge he had looked so angry. Angry and jumpy. Now he looked...extinguished. Exhausted. Asleep on his feet.

‘Just wanted to know what I was dealing with Slayer...’ Her prisoner said quietly and looked back to his reflection. ‘I don’t _look_ like that...there was nothing there. It didn’t understand me. We aren’t kin. Like you said.’ He mumbled to himself, pressing both hands against his face. ‘...where am I? I don’t understand. I don’t understand.’ He whispered to himself.

He looked up at her again, noticing her blade a few centimeters away from his neck. ‘Oh. I take it you’re angry you had to take on both of them?’

‘Help would have been _appreciated_.’ Cassandra growled through gritted teeth.

‘I am weaponless...and I’m sure you’d be screaming at me to disarm my myself if I had somehow armed myself. Also? You were doing fine? Much stabbing, very fine.’ He said, trailing off into a yawn that he shook himself out of and fixed her with a jarringly awake and intense look. ‘Speaking of weapons. _Where is Bright Wrath?_ ’

‘Your sword?’ Cassandra asked. ‘It’s been confiscated. It’s back at the chantry.’

The elf’s expression instantly went back to looking tired.

‘Is it whole?’ The elf murmured sleepily. ‘Queen Deep Gleam with not be amused if you destroy it. She made it herself, she’s lovely...’

Cassandra pulled out two small bottles that contained a bright red liquid and held them out for him to take.

He stared at it for ten seconds, swaying back and forth from exhaustion.

‘Poison? Weird place for me to die, isn’t it?’ He mumbled, rubbing his eyes. ‘Seems like a weird choice…’

‘It’s potions!’ Cassandra exclaimed and shook the potions at him.

‘ _Poison potions_?’ He corrected himself.

‘Health potions!’ Cassandra snapped, grabbed the front of his coat and dragged him over to her. ‘It will help you to stay awake, on your feet and Maker willing, _alive_. Drink it!’ She held it up between them.

The elf’s eyes lazily went from looking at her, over to the bottle and back to her.

After another solid ten seconds of staring at her intently, he reached up and took the potions from her.

‘I’m beginning to believe you’re not going to kill me any time soon...’ He said lowly, removing one potion’s topper.

‘I told you, there _will_ be a trial.’ Cassandra said, crossing her arms and watched as the elf scoffed and downed one of the potions.

\----

‘Hmmmm...’ Res hummed as his mind and body woke up, tiredness, pain and stress being driven off by the potion. He tried to identify the taste of the liquid, with little success. ‘Sweet, almost makes me think of strawberries?’ He was almost tempted to drink the second one...

He was leaning against a large part of the bridge while the Slayer rummaged through some items from a broke cart that had fallen with the bridge.

‘It’s made from Elfroot.’ she said, pushing a large crate off the broke cart.

‘Sounds painful.’ Res interjected quickly, and pocketed the other bottle.

‘And Dawn Lotus.’ She went on and got up, a long staff in hand. ‘Now, if you’re done wasting our time?’

Res nodded and pushed off from the broken stone to move towards the woman.

She held the staff out to him. It had a rather massive morning-star as a top and a long, sharp blade at the other end.

‘A weird...spear?’ Res asked and took the staff in both hands, balancing it. ‘Or a morning-star with a very long handle?’

’It’s a mage's staff.’ The woman told him, tilting her head to the side with a very suspicious glance at him. ‘ _How_ do you not know?’

Res spun it in a wide circle, eyes following the staff’s sharp blade as it went past, enthralled.

‘There’s no time for this.’ The Slayer said, raising her hands in an frustrated manner. ‘You need _it_. There will be more demons the further in we go into valley. I cannot protect you.’ She said, turning away and started to move towards the lake’s edge. ‘I should remember you did not attempt to run.’

Res looked towards the broken cart and noticed two plain daggers laying on the ice. Weapons he had _much_ more experience with.

He quickly fetched them,secured them to his belt and ran after the woman.

\-----

’I’m a Seeker.’ Cassandra said as they moved up a small, earthy incline.

‘Huh?’ The elf replied as he tried to attach the staff to the his back, struggling with the staff’s clasp, but quickly gave up, content with holding it in his right hand.

’You keep calling me ‘Slayer’. I’m Cassandra Pentaghast, Seeker of the Chantry.’ Cassandra went on.

‘Oh, that sounds...much less murderous.’ The elf said quietly. ‘I...I must have misheard your men when they summoned you...where _are_ your soldiers?’  

‘At the forward camp,or fighting. We are on our own, for now.’ Cassandra explained and pointed further into the valley.

‘What gave you that bruise?’ She asked a few minutes later to fill silence.

‘Bruise?’ The elf repeated, almost slipping down a steep and snow covered hill. ‘A specific one? I’ve got several by now.’

‘The one on your face.’ Cassandra went on. ‘Wasn’t one of our soldiers, was it?’

‘Oh... _that_.’ He said, hand going to the side of his face. ‘No. I got that from an idiot who believed I wanted _anything_ to do with his...’ His eyes narrowed slightly, as if thinking of the right words. ‘- starry-eyed and weepy woman.’

‘You were attacked over a woman?’ Cassandra asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘I was.’ The elf concurred. ‘Ambushed, actually. Charring and Ice-Cinder intervened before it got bloody.’

‘Friends or family of yours?’ Cassandra inquired.

‘What’s the word you’d use? Lovers?’ The elf questioned.

‘Lover _s_?’ Cassandra raised her eyebrow higher in surprise. ‘What...did they do to him?’

‘Oh, my Charring set his clothes on fire and Ice-Cinder has _very_ sharp nails.’ He noticed her slightly horrified expression. ‘They...they’re lovely people, really.’

‘What about this attacker of yours?’

‘Oh. He has a couple of scars to show off.’ He waved his hand at her. ‘He’s fine, I’m sure.’

\-----

‘There! Watch out!’ The Seeker called and charged right off a cliff.  ‘If we flank them, we may gain the advantage!’

Res blinked owlishly and moved towards the edge just in time to see her drive her sword through another demon.

She had informed him it was called a Shade. Another one was making its way up the incline across from him.

Res spun the staff around, still trying to figure out how to properly use it. It felt top-heavy like the glaives the Timeless guards used.

He had used one a _few_ times.

He spun it again, letting the staff fly in a large arch above his head and slammed the morning-star part down into the approaching Shade when it came into range, sending the creature into the ground.

Taking a hint from the Seeker and some bear hunting he had witnessed, Res charged the Shade and rammed the blade deep into its back.

The Shade screamed at him, its long arms flailing and aiming for his feet.  

He jumped out of the Shade’s range, swinging the staff one more time.

The morning-star slammed into the Shade’s head again. It went limp and evaporated into dust that faded so fast he barely saw it.

Driving the morning-star into the ground beside himself, Res sucked in a shaky breath, eyes locked on the spot the Shade had been in.

The Seeker had called it a mage’s staff. Res eyed it with some suspicion. He was sure he was using it incorrectly, but it had downed the Shade.

This needs more _testing,_ he thought _,_ spotting another Shade further away.

\-------

Over a hill, across the winding, a frozen river, more Shades and something called Wraiths showed up and were slain.

Res gingerly took a look at his coat. It was in _tatters_ from claw marks and the Wraiths’ wisp attacks.

Clothier Ceedea would faint if she saw it now, he was sure. Faint, wake up and slap him for ruining it.

‘We’re getting close to the fighting!’ The Seeker informed from the base of a set of steps that lead up to a higher area. ‘You can hear it from here.’ She grabbed his arm, pulled him out of his thoughts and up the steps.

The area above were filled with ruins of the temple. The broken, black-blasted walls having become an arena for several people and demons fighting each other.

A mass of black-green crystals, or stone, hung in the air above the fighters, long spikes shooting out from its center before melting back into itself.

‘That’s _it_?’ Res asked, narrowing his eyes at the floating mass. ‘What am I supposed to do? Hold the mark up to it?’

‘ _Try_.’ The Seeker said and pulled her sword.

Res pulled his staff free from his coat and sent some of his rarely used powers around it.

Hviall was a wonderful teacher when it came to spear tossing.


	6. Crossbows and looting like grandfather Zharo

‘When do you think the Seeker intends to drop by?’ Varric called and somersaulted away from a Shade.

The Shade withered to a blast from Solas’ staff.  ‘Any second, hopefully!’ He responded and readied another blast.

Another Shade lunged for Varric but froze, just as its claw were about to sink into the dwarf’s neck.

Varric, slightly puzzled, readied Bianca for another shot, only to have his target stolen by a mage’s staff. It had been flung at high speed and was now skewered in the Shade’s neck.

The Shade crumbled and the staff clattered against the floor.

Varric and Solas stared at the staff, one in surprise and the other in bafflement.

Over the fighting Solas heard Cassandra as she approached.

‘What Circle are you  _ from _ ?!’ Cassandra yelled at her prisoner, grabbed hold of his upper arm in a vice-like grip and dragged him so close they would have been butting heads with each other if the man hadn’t been slightly taller. ‘That’s not how you use a staff!’

‘ _ Circle _ ?!’ The strange elf exclaimed and tore his arm free while stepping away from Cassandra. ‘Had I been part of the blasted Circle, we would never have fallen! The rebellion would not have taken place and most of my kind would not be languishing in such a weakened state!’

The two stared at each other for few seconds, apparently ignoring that fact a battle was taking place a few feet from them.

_Rebellion_? Fallen? Solas blinked at the words. He didn’t have much time to think as one young soldier collided with him, frantically trying fend of another Shade.

‘ _ What _ ?’ Cassandra demanded, eyes growing narrow. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Clearly not the same kind of Circle!’ Her prisoner yelled in frustration and frowned at her, rubbing his arm. His expression soften into a more apologetic one and shook his head. ‘I...don’t think...I’m a... what did you call it?  _ Maigh?  _ M _ age _ ?’ He let his hands fall to his side and shook his head again. ‘I don’t know  _ how  _ to use that staff probably. I don’t even know  _ where  _ I am.’

’Seeker!’ Varric called, shooting one of the remaining Shades to drag its attention away from the young soldier it was overpowering. ‘Mind helping here?!’

Cassandra nodded and dropped down into the area they were fighting.

Her prisoner followed a second later, rushing to greet one Shade with a pair of daggers.

\---

The rift flare and crackled as Res fought his way through to it. The Shade he had been fighting fell to a bolt fired from crossbow wielded by a rather short, but very bulky man with straw blonde hair.

Res stopped in front of the rift. It had diminished greatly, He noted, looking from it to the hissing mark on his hand.

With the last Shade gone, the three remaining soldiers caught their breath, while a bald man rushed up to Res’ side and took hold of his marked hand.

‘Quickly, before more come through!’ He yelled over the rift’s loud sizzling and roaring.

He forced Res’ hand up towards the rift, causing him to wince as a tendril sprung from the mark and connected to rift.

One small blast later, the rift vanished from the air and Res pulled his hand out of the man’s grip, taking a few steps away from him, eyes stuck on the man’s pointy ears.

He hadn’t seen wrong in the Haven then. The youngster  _ had  _ been an elf.

‘Y-you’re...’ Res stammered, eyes going from the man’s ears to his hands.  _ Five fingers? _   He shook his head, trying to reel in his thoughts. ‘ _ What are yo- what  _ did you do?’

‘I did nothing. The credit is yours.’ He motioned to Res.

‘I don’t think I want credit for anything that has happened today, if that’s alright...’ Res said, and looked down to his hand. ‘It’s this screaming _ thing’s  _ doing.’

‘Whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark on your hand.’ The man explained. ‘I theorized the mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach’s wake.’  He gave the Seeker, who had come up beside Res, a short nod. ‘And it seems I was correct.’

Res moved a step further away, only to feel a wave of exhaustion crashing into him and made him wobble. He reached into his pocket and pulled up the second bottle.

His hands shook noticeably as he pulled at the potion’s stopper, making him grumble at himself. 

‘Meaning it could close the Breach itself.’ The Seeker said, steadying Res’ arm with a hand.

‘ _ Thank you _ .’ Res murmured as the stopper finally let go of the bottle.

‘Possibly.’ The bald man said with another nod and turned his head towards Res. ‘It seems you hold the key to our salvation.’

Res gave him a side glance and made a little strangled noise before downing the last potion.

‘Good to know!’ The short man with the crossbow said cheerfully, adjusting his gloves. ‘Here I thought we’d be ass-deep in demons forever.’

‘Varric Tethras. Rogue,storyteller and occasionally unwelcome tagalong.’ He introduced himself as he ventured over to Res and the two others.

He winked at the Seeker who sneered slightly back at him.

‘Um...?’ Res started, eyes going from the man’s face and landed on his crossbow that was almost as long as its owner was tall. ‘That’s...a very nice crossbow you got there. My uncle would snatch it off your back the second he saw it.’ 

‘Ah, isn’t she?’ Varric smiled at him and looked over his shoulder, giving his crossbow an almost loving look. ‘Bianca and I have been through alot together.’

‘Bianca?’ Res repeated,leaning slightly closer to the Varric. ‘You’ve named your crossbow too?’

‘Of course.’ Varric nodded. ‘And she’ll be great company in the valley.’

’Absolutely not.’ The Seeker strode towards Varric while Res moved over to retrieved his staff, trying to ignore the fact the bald man’s eyes were following his every step.

His tone of voice was friendly enough, but his eyes had an intense look to them.

‘You help is appreciated, Varric, but...’ Cassandra said, almost begrudgingly.

‘Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker?’ Varric shook his head at her with small smile. ‘Your soldiers aren’t in control anymore. You  _ need  _ me.’

The Seeker sounded like she was outright disgusted by Varric’s statement and walked away from him.

’My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions. I am pleased to see you still live.’ The bald man introduced himself as Res came back to them.

’He means, ‘I kept that mark from killing you while you slept.’’ Varric said jovially.

’Um...th-thank you.’ Res stammered.

’Thank me if we managed to close the Breach without killing you in the progress.’Solas said, and turned to face the Seeker, while Res wandered over to a dead body of a Templar and bent to examine something of made of gold that had spilled from man’s pockets.

\-----

It looked somewhat like the gold doubloons the trolls and their human neighbours used for bartering.

‘Finding anything interesting?’ Varric asked, walking over to him.

‘What is this?’ Res got up, holding the gleaming gold in his hand. ‘A coin?’

‘That’s a Sovereign. You don’t have coins back home?’ Varric asked with a head tilt.

‘Most of our neighbours use Queen Deep Gleam’s currency.’ Res said, studying coin intently. ‘We have little use for these. We trade food, help and such.’

Varric leaned a bit closer. ‘Queen Deep Gleam? You have a monarch?’

‘Ah, no. I have a chieftess, Darkfire. Queen Deep Gleam is...Queen of everybody’s heart, I guess you can say? She has her own people and domain.’

Varric chuckled as he reached down, snatched up the man’s bag of gold and tossed it to Res.

‘Why are you giving me this?’ Res questioned, looking from the bag to Varric. ‘Do you think I can bribe my executor when the time comes?’ He gave Cassandra a side glance. ‘I don’t think gold works on  _ her _ .’  His voice crackled.

\-----

‘Might as well take it. He’s got no use for it.’ Varric replied and glanced at the dead Templar. 

The four fingered elf nodded and made noises that sounded like he agreed.

Varric heard the frail, angry humour in the elf’s voice, saw tremors, little jolts of nervousness when he was standing still or not talking.

His reaction to Solas was odd. He had moved away from him instantly, like he was something alien, eyes going from the bald elf’s ears and then to his fingers.  

Cassandra’s prisoner had kept his name to himself. Likely one of the few things he had a bit of control over, Varric reckoned.

He quickly decided to not press him for it, but made up his mind to keep their new companion talking.

‘Does this mean I should be looting every corpse we come across?’ The dark skinned elf asked as he put the coin into the bag.

‘It’s fair game.’ Varric said and gave him a smile. ‘They won’t be using it.’

‘Stars,  _ looting _ . Like Zharo, Maphara and Yionyi did in the in the old days.’ The elf marveled in an anxious way and started looking around the area. 

\----

‘Cassandra, you should know. The magic involved here is in unlike any I have seen. Solas said, looking up towards a broken pillar near the gate where Varric and Cassandra’s prisoner was looking around for items of use. ‘Your prisoner is a mage, of  _ some  _ sort, but I find it difficult to imagine any mage having such power.’

‘Understood.’ Cassandra nodded and caught the two other’s attention. ‘With me! We must get to the forward camp quickly.’ She moved towards a broken part of the surround wall and jumped over nimbly.

‘Well, Bianca’s excited!’ Varric said as he came down the snow covered stairs.

The dark skinned elf sighed. ‘At least somebody is having a good day.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In elfquest there was a Circle of Nine who controlled the Palace, in Dragon Age a Circle is an organisation of mages.


	7. Unheard shouting and bad memories

*Can you hear me?* Res sent at the bald elf.

No response.

*Scratch your ear if you can hear me.* Res ordered.

Solas did nothing beside move further down the road.

*WHY DO YOU HAVE FIVE FINGERS?* Res sent as harshly as he could. Something that would have sent others elves to the ground screaming.

Solas didn’t even wobble.

Res’ left eye twitched.

‘Your uncle’s an crossbow enthusiast, Fancy?’ Varric asked, stopping Res’ non-verbal screaming at Solas.

‘...Fancy?’ He asked, giving Varric a puzzled look before looking down at his ruined coat. One of the sleeves had been completely ripped off it and was only on his arm because the coats metallic cuffs wouldn’t let it fall.

‘Your headpiece.’ Varric replied, nodding up towards his head.

‘Oh!’ Res explained, reaching up to his headpiece. ‘What was you question...?’

‘Your uncle uses crossbows?’ Varric said again.

‘Yes, he has one.’ Res said and nodded. ‘It’s named Great Wasp.’

‘Do you name all your weapons?’ Varric asked, nodding back to Bianca.

‘Not anymore, no. It was something master-smith Deirran started doing ages ago. He felt it would make us bond with our weapons. It fell out of style after a few centuries.’ Res explained and lurched into a explanation  about their 'make them yourself' weapon tradition. 

\----

'Varric, how many moons is there in the night sky?' The dark skinned elf asked quietly, moving away from the topic weapons.

  
'Two. Why?' Varric said gave him a very bemused look.  
  


'Just had a thought that would explain _everything_.' Cassandra's prisoner groaned, pressing his hands against his face. 'A ridiculous thought, really.'  
  


Varric heard him mutter ' _moved to another world, what was I thinking?'_ under his breath. 

\----

Varric had wracked his brain to remember ever hearing anything about four fingered elves, and came up empty.

But who knew what Thedas still had of surprises?

‘ _ Oh _ .’  Cassandra’s prisoner suddenly murmured and slipped down to a small gully.

Varric peeked out over the ledge to see him heading for a dead body.

He was seemingly taking the ‘loot every corpse’ to heart.

He found it odd how unfazed the elf was by the dead bodies. His clothes were in tatters by now, but there was no mistaking it was all made from fine fabric. The blue-green Sky gem in the metallic headpiece and matching cuffs would likely sell for several big bags of Sovereigns. It all pointed towards the elf being from some fine family.

He had looked jarringly out of place in the Frostbacks when the soldiers had first dragged him over the bridge for Cassandra and Leliana to see. His misuse of that mage staff just reinforced the notion he _really_ wasn’t from around the place.

However, he had been found with a sword. A fine, powerful sword that had almost take one soldier’s fingers when he had slid his hand over its blade. He wasn't a novice with those daggers either.

‘Tell me something, Fancy?’ Varric asked, noting Solas’s gaze which was currently fixed on the other elf. ‘Have you ever been on the battlefield?’

‘ _ Varric.’  _ Cassandra warned up ahead.

‘Just asking questions, Seeker.’ Varric said jovially. ‘I saw that blade of his. Just curious to know what kind of use it’s seen.’

‘For your stories, no doubt.’ Cassandra scowled.

Varric looked back to the dark skinned elf who was looking back and forth from Cassandra and him.

‘Battlefield?’ The elf asked and put several sovereigns into the bag. ‘You mean war and fights, yes?’

‘Got it in one.’ Varric said and slid down into the gully to walk with him.

‘Oh, plenty. Just not recen-’ he stopped himself, a look of anger crossing his face. ‘Xirber doesn't count.’ He muttered to himself. He looked back to Varric with a blank expression. ‘Not recently. Nowadays our neighbours typically do the fighting if hostile people find their way into our land.’

‘Not much for warfare anymore?’ Varric asked, taking a little figurine of Maferath the betrayer the elf handed him. Seemingly due to not knowing what do with it.

‘It’s an agreement we have with our neighbours.’ The elf replied. ‘They take care of their hostile cousins and we stay hidden.’

‘Why?’ Wouldn’t they need your help if things got out of hand?’  Solas asked from the pathway.

The other elf pulled his shoulders up to his ears, only glancing Solas’ way. ‘It typically only gets out of hand if we’re discovered. Outside-humans tend to get...hysteric, _rabid_ and start screaming ‘demons’ our way and start swinging their stone knives about.’

‘ _ What? _ _’_ Solas exclaimed. ‘They call you  _ demons _ _?’_

The darker elf pulled his shoulders up even further. ‘That’s what I’ve heard. I’ve never had to deal with any beside the ones I’ve killed during the wars and they were always screaming that word at the top of their lungs.’

‘ _ Why _ -’ Solas started but was cut off by Cassandra who pulled her sword just was they came to a large lake area.

‘More fighting.’ Varric said and pulled Bianca off his back.

‘Wonderful.’ The marked elf said steely and pulled his two daggers.

He pointed to the oncoming Grater Shade. ‘Your name is  _ Xirber  _ now.’

\----

Solas kept his eye on the elf as the fighting would allow.

While the tattered coat and accessories screamed ‘nobility’ or the like, the man tossed himself at the Greater Shade with the same ferocity as the demons that attacked them.

He was about to send a ice blast towards a smaller Shade that was coming up behind him when something odd happened.

The other elf must have heard it, because he turned to glare at it just as he plunged his daggers in the Grater Shade’s neck.

To his surprise the other Shade came to a total stop, hands reaching for the elf.

Just like the one had been skewered by the elf’s staff, he recalled.

It stayed like that for several seconds before suddenly jolting away from its target, fleeing as fast as it could.

‘SOLAS ON YOUR RIGHT!’ Varric yelled and fired at a Wraith he hadn't noticed.

The bolt missed completely as the Wraith flickered backwards before it lunged forwards again and hit Solas with a blast to the back, knocking him off his feet and sending him down on the ice.

\---

They got pushed down a frozen river by the demons, past a burning house and up an earthy hill where three other demons just seemed to standing around fire.

\---

’You have no Vallaslin. You aren’t Dalish.’ Solas stated as they moved down a pair of stone steps after the last demon fell, his voice growing cold and hard. ‘And I can’t imagine a city elf having access to the kind of like fabric you wear.’

’Dalish?’ Res repeated and stopped dead in his tracks.

\-  _ The Fade. The Beyond…as the Dalish say? _ \-  

Res winced as a woman’s voice echoed in his mind, fear and confusion tearing at his mind.   

Solas either didn’t notice his discomfort, or ignored it. ‘Who sent you? Were you at the Conclave to spy on the talks?’ He asked, taking a hold of Res’ right arm. ‘Who are you?’

Another voice, belonging to Bailon, long dead, spoke in his mind, as clear as the day Res had destroyed him.

\-  **_The stars, Res._ ** -

‘ _ No _ .’ Res shook his head violently. ‘ _ No. No _ ’

‘No  _ what _ ?’ Solas asked, grey eyes drilling in Res’ yellow-green.

\-  **_We will go back to the stars. And you will get us there._ ** -

’ _ Get away from me _ .’ Res hissed through gritted teeth, tearing his arm free, eyes growing frantic and furious.

Cassandra stepped in between them and pushed Res away from Solas.

’Can’t you elves just get along?’ Varric asked, glancing at Solas who just frowned back at him.

\----

’You remember something, don’t you?’ Cassandra asked as they made their way down the river again, getting back on course.

‘Just words. Sentences really.’ Res said as they walked by the still burning house.

‘Spoken by who?’ Cassandra asked, leaving the river and walking up its embankment.

‘A woman. She sounds scared, pleads with me to understand and...I don’t think I do. It scares her.’ Res told her quietly.

‘There’s something else, isn’t there?’ Cassandra asked. ‘Somebody else? The one behind all of this?’

Res’ expression twisted sharply. Bailon couldn't haven thing do with anything happening now. What remained of his soul were the size of grains of sand and couldn't even remember being a soul. 'No, it's ju-'

The Breach killed his reply as it expanded above them and the mark sent one long flare up his arm, neck, almost arcing through his head, finding a hole in the nest his magic has been trying to build.

His legs disappeared under him and the ground rushed to greet him again.

Cassandra’s arms were suddenly around him like a vice and stopped his fall. ‘We have to hurry.’ She told him,helped him back on his feet and marched on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Both Thedas and Abode are two mooned worlds.


	8. Mountaineering and sympathetic harebrained magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't remember if I already mentioned this, but 'sending' is the eq word for telepathy.  
> 'Starai' is my fan-name for the eq elves ancestors who are typically named High Ones. In their original shape they have tiny star-like sparkles in their eyes. Star eyes, Starai.

‘So...are you innocent?’ Varric asked a few minutes later.

‘I don’t really remember what happened.’ Res said as he passed more ruined walls, hurrying for another set of steps. ‘But this thing isn’t _my_ creation.’ He waved his marked hand.

‘That’ll get you every time. Should have spun a story.’ Varric said as they began ascending the steps.

‘That’s what you would have done.’ Cassandra said.

‘It’s more believable, and less prone to result in premature executions.’ Varric argued with a smile meant to annoy.

Res briefly wondered if his grandfather Zharo would believe the story he’d spin if he survived any of the things that would come. The ancient Starai was phenomenally difficult to surprise, having seen other worlds and other times with his mentor Lokya.

Res sent the Breach a glare as they went some winding steps.

True-Demons falling from a massive hole in the sky? It would give the old Starai pause, he was sure.   
  
For a few seconds.

He pushed Zharo out of his mind to wonder why Solas had to use a staff to use _magic_.

\----

Several demons and one rift later they finally reached the forward camp.

‘Ah, here they come.’ Said a man who was standing at a table, looking over a map.

‘You made it.’ Leliana said, moving towards them. ‘Chancellor Roderick, this is-’

‘I know who he is.’ The man interrupted, eyes landing on Res before turning to Cassandra.

‘As grand Chancellor of the Chantry, I hereby order you to take this criminal to Val Royeaux to face execution.’ Roderick demanded, pointing to Res.

Res rolled his eyes. ‘Really, what is it with you people? “There will be a trial”, “send him to Val Roy-something-or-another for execution”!’ He grumbled and tossed his arms up in air. ‘People want me dead, but won’t pick up a sword and do it themselves.’ He pointed to Cassandra. ‘She even has sword and won’t do it!’

Cassandra stepped closer to the table, ignoring Res. ‘Order me’? You are a glorified clerk. A _bureaucrat_ _!’_ She snapped.

‘And you are a thug, but a thug who supposedly serves the chantry!’ Roderick shot back.

‘We serve the Most Holy, Chancellor, as you well know.’ Leliana said, turning to face Cassandra’s group.

‘ _I didn’t._ ’ Res interjected quietly.

‘Justinia is dead!’ Roderick said sharply at the two women. ‘We must elect a replacement, and obey her orders on the matter!’  

‘Is _anybody_ actually in charge here?’’ Res asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘You _killed_ everybody in charge!’ Chancellor Roderick exclaimed angrily, jabbing a finger at Res.

‘That’s a no, then?’ Res drolled.

Cassandra walked up to the table Roderick stood behind, her expression hard enough to make the man back down.

‘Call a retreat, Seeker. Our position here is hopeless.’ Roderick said, tone growing milder.

‘We can stop this before it’s too late.’  Cassandra pressed.

‘How? You won’t survive long enough to reach the temple. Even with all your soldiers.’ Roderick said with a small head shake and placating hands gestures.

‘We must get to the temple. It’s the quickest route.’ Cassandra argued, placing her hands on the table and glanced towards the route she would take.

‘But not the safest. Our forces can charge as a distraction while you go through the mountains.’ Leliana said and pointed towards another route in the mountains.

‘We lost contact with an entire squad on that path. It’s too risky.’ Cassandra cautioned.

‘Listen to me.’ Roderick broke in. ‘Abandon this now, before more lives are lost. ‘

The Breach roared once again, lightning arcing downwards to the earth.

Res’ magic held the magic back this time, causing it to arch outward, like little green lightning. The others turned their gaze to him as his hand shook.

‘How do _you_ think we should proceed?‘ Cassandra ask when it stopped a few seconds later.

Res gawked at her and turned his head to see if she was talking to somebody behind him. There was just Solas, who was looking at him intently. ‘ _Me_ ?’ Res exclaimed and looked back to Cassandra. ‘You’re asking me what _I_ think?‘

‘You have the mark.’ Solas said behind.

‘ _She’s actually asking_ _me_.’ Res groaned, pulling at his hair. ‘The one who has been declared a mass murderer.’

‘And you are the one we must keep alive. Since we cannot agree on our own…’ Cassandra trailed off.

Res grumbled and let go of his hair to look up at the direction of the mountains.

He could get a better view of the land from up there. Spot any known landmarks.

So far absolutely nothing had looked familiar. While he hadn’t traveled too far into Frozen Mountains, he at least knew what they looked like.

If he could just spot Blue Mountain...

‘The mountain pass is the safest,yes?’ He said, turning to Leliana who nodded. ‘And you want me to reach the Breach alive,yes?’ He said, looking to Cassandra who gave him a mildly disapproving look. ‘Maybe we can even find your soldiers up there and help them?’

Both women nodded and Res took off with Varric in tow.

\----

Res pulled himself up over the edge of the first mining platform and hurried over to the next ladder while the others were just reaching the first ladder.

‘The tunnel should be just ahead. The path to the temple lies just beyond it.’ Cassandra said somewhere below.

‘What manner of tunnel is this? A mine?’ Solas asked.  

‘Part of an old mining complex, yes. These mountains are full of such paths.’ Cassandra explained.

Res tuned them out.

He was almost there. He’d get a better look and it would be clear!

\-----

_It wasn’t clear whatsoever_.

‘ _Nooo_. No no no no...’ Res whined and fell to his knees, his eyes scanning the mountains. ‘Where is it?! Where is it? Mountains as far as I can see and not one looks familiar! Stupid, awful Blue Mountain, where are you!’

Res pulled at the platform’s railing as his expression became more and more panicked.

He pressed his head against the railing and sent with a force that would floor most elves. His thoughts reaching out for his dearest. Over mountains, touching nothing that could hear it.

*Charring!*

*Cone!*

*Hviall!*

He _could_ feel the three of them. Faintly. So faintly they might as well be a world away.

‘I’m alone.’ Res hissed to himself, fingers moving from the railing to dig into his scalp. ‘ _Alone_ . I _wanted_ to be alone. The harebrained magic listened!’

_‘I just wanted to be alone! Away from everybody!’_ He remembered himself saying angrily _._

‘The blasted magic picked up on _that_ and sent me to a place where my own kind simply isn’t to _be found_.’ Res raged quietly, slumping against the platform’s railing.


	9. Fiery doom and memory of stone

Res groaned as a Shade sent him to the iced over floor.

He hadn’t noticed it.

He had gone into the mine still reeling from the fact he was alone wherever he was.

He _had_ heard Varric yell to watch out, but connecting his warning and the fact _he_ should be aware of it and be careful to not get hurt had become incredibly hard to do.

Res screeched as Solas put up a shield around him. The noise were so _loud_.

He felt somebody grab hold of his arm and attempted to yank him into a standing position.

‘Get up!’ Cassandra yelled.

Res did as she ordered and little else. He sent at the demons that began to target him, making them flee from him. He sent one of them out the mouth of the mine and over the railing.

A little, strangled laugh escaped him.

\---

‘You alright there, Fancy?’ Varric asked as the last demon crumbled and silence fell over the chamber.

The dark skinned elf waved at him with his marked hand, lips curled into a small, absent smile.

‘Seeker, I think it’s best you leave him alone for a bit.’ Varric said as Cassandra passed by him moving towards her prisoner, thinking she was about to throttle the man.

She just pointed the elf in direction that lead deeper into the mine. He nodded and started walking, followed by Cassandra who placed a hand on his shoulder.

\----

Another demon flung itself over a railing inside the mine, falling into the dark chasm, fleeing from the now mostly silent elf.

‘How.’ Solas said, staring at the spot the demon had flung itself from. ‘ _How are you doing that?_ ’

The elf hummed at him, eyes darting over to another demon.

It froze and gave Varric time to aim.

‘Does it really matter?’ Varric asked and fired.  
  
‘It doesn’t right now.’ Cassandra declared and rammed her sword through the demon’s head.

‘I think it does!’ Solas argued, putting up a new shield around Cassandra and looked over at her prisoner. ‘How are you doing that? Explain!’

The elf shook his head. ‘You can’t hear _it._ _You can’t hear it_. Did you get rid of that part?’ He tilted his head at Solas. ‘Why would you mangle yourself so much? Wasn’t the fall enough? Didn’t the rebellion do enough damage?’

‘What?’ Solas asked, tone growing cold. ‘What rebellion?’

‘The rebellion.’ The other elf said like it was the most obvious thing. ‘The slave rebellion.’

Solas froze, dread crawling up his neck as his thoughts began going towards impossible things.

He pushed them away and tossed up another shield around the other elf who flinched at the loud sound.

\-----

When they found the mine’s exit, they also found three bodies.

‘Guess we found the soldiers.’ Varric sighed.

‘That cannot be all of them.’ Cassandra said, crouching down to one of the bodies.

‘So the others could be holed up ahead?’ Varric asked, looking down the path.

‘Our priority must be the Breach.’ Solas declared as he came out of the mines.  ‘Unless we seal it soon, no one is safe.’

‘I’m leaving _that_ to our elven friend here.’ Varric said, nodding his head at the group’s other elf who was already moving down the path.

They hurried after him.

\----

The soldiers turned out be fighting a small group of demons further down the path.

‘Lady Cassandra!’ One soldier called as they joined the fray that had a rift as a center.

‘You’re alive!’ Cassandra called back, bashing a Shade with her shield.

Res ran past her, intent on closing the rift and leaving the fighting to the others.

‘Just barely.’ The same soldier said, just as something new emerged from the rift.

‘OH MY STARS _GET OUT OF MY WAY_!’ Res snarled, slamming into a bony demon and knocked it into the stony ground that melted around its limbs, locking it in place.

The demon looked around in bewilderment as two of the soldiers descended on it.  

A few minutes later both the demons and the rift were gone.

‘Sealed, as before. You are becoming _quite_ proficient at this.’ Solas said with a steely gaze, coming up next to Res,who just mumbled something about falling into crevasses and edged away from the bald elf.

‘Let’s hope it works on the big one.’  Varric said, coming up next to them.

On the stone plateau, Cassandra helped up the soldier that had greeted them before.

‘Thank the Maker you finally arrived, Lady Cassandra. I don’t think we could have held out much longer.’ The soldier said, her left arm hung limply at her side.

‘Thank our prisoner, Lieutenant. He insisted we come this way.’ Cassandra said, turning around to look at Res who was looking towards the path they would be following.

‘Thank?’ Res muttered the word like he had never heard it before and looked back to them. ‘ _Thank_?’

‘The prisoner?’ The soldier said, attention snapping over to Res. ‘Then you…?’

Res nodded shakily at her, tempted to tell Solas to stop looking at him unless he _really_ wanted to lose his eyes.

‘Then you have my sincere gratitude.’ The soldier said, bowing her head in his direction. She formed her hand into a fist and bumping it against her heart.

Something in Res cracked at woman’s gesture and her tone. ‘ _Gratitude_?’ He whispered, shaking his head.

‘Fancy.’ Varric said, reaching for him.

‘ _Gratitude_?’ Res repeated shakily and bolted. Racing down the path towards the Breach, leaving the three others behind as Cassandra gave the soldiers orders.

\---

\- _Crack_ -

’Sorry....didn’t see you there...’ Res murmured, moving his foot away from a broken bone he had stepped on.

The cliffs directly beneath the Breach were blast-black, long and jagged.

Faint green light faded in and out in the long spikes that seemed to have been pushed out of the earth.

The Breach was directly above his head now.

Res stood in what had once been a hall, he suspected.

Res hugged himself, mainly to stop himself from touching the stone. Not that it helped. The stone’s memories would creep into him through his feet.

There were bones and still burning bodies scattered around the area.

Some of the bodies still stood where they died. The first two had taken just a bit of his dwindling sanity. One had looked like they were running and the other had been half emerged in the floor. He passed three more in similar poses.

All had clearly been alive and conscious when it happened. It hadn’t been fast enough for them.

Something that wasn’t real crawled up the back of his neck. It felt like broken, burnt fingers crawling over his skin and into his head.

Res closed his eyes in a grimace, trying to brace himself for mental onslaught of seeing the temple explode.

Whatever defences he could muster would not be enough and he knew it.

\----

_\- A dark orb skipped across the floor, rolling towards him, and Res saw himself lunging after it like it was his favourite toy, picking it up without a single thought in his head._

_There was sound of something unlocking and everything was lost._

_Light brighter than the sun engulfed the room filled with dead eyed people who snapped out of existence._

_A beam of pale green light stood out against the fire that blasted through a roof that wasn’t there two seconds later._

_Unfathomable energy and fire tore through the floor and two people Varric’s size just managed to grab onto each other before the fire descended on them._

_Time seemed to stop for some as the floor they stood on exploded upward, light breaking through the floor cracks, suspending them in the air, above an inferno that soon broke free from its constraints._

_Two arguing people, a mage and templar don’t notice their world ending._

\----

-Center of temple ruins -

The statue had been pretty a few hours ago, Res mused, leaning against a banister that somehow survived the carnage. Now it was just as broken as everything else.

‘Are you well?’ Leliana, was it? Shawl, brooch with an all-seeing eye. Pretty voice, like a pleasant bird.

‘Hmm.’ Res humed and narrowed his eyes at the statue. ‘No.’

‘Where is Cassandra?’ Leliana asked somewhere behind him.

Res hummed again, eyes stuck on the Breach. Staring at it wasn’t helping his mind, he was sure.

Not that it really mattered any more.

‘Prisoner?’ Leliana asks, dragging his attention back to her.

‘Oh!’ Res exclaimed, remembering the woman had asked him something. ‘We found those soldiers, saved them. She was telling them what to do when I left.’ He said and bit his lip. ‘I ran.’

‘Why?’ She was closer now, walking carefully and calmly.

‘She sounded so sincere. It _hurt_.’ Res said, dragging his eyes from the Breach.

‘Cassandra?’ She was standing beside him now.

‘No, the soldier with the broken arm.’ Res said, shaking his head wildly, not caring it she understood.

_There was a hole in the sky_. Understanding and logic had lost their place.

Res turned his head to look at her. ‘I have the soldier’s _gratitude_ . She’s grateful I saved her. Cassandra wanted to go the other way. I wonder if it bothers her now?’ He rambled, looking back to the statue. ‘Bothers me. Not for the same reasons, mind. Everybody...everybody is behaving so strangely here. I...I’d understand if violence was being was aimed towards me, I would. You’ve already named me a mass murderer, but you won’t simply kill me and I don’t _understand_.’

He stopped talking abruptly, staring into the air.

‘What’s your name?’Leliana asked quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder carefully.

‘H-how can I have her gratitude for saving her life when I’m blamed for the death of thousands?’ Res queried quietly, eyes darting around, looking at nothing. ‘ _Why would she give me that_.'

Leliana added some pressure on his shoulder.

‘Oh!’ He waved his marked hand. ’This thing? It’s from a orb of some sort.’ He explained. ‘Not _my_ orb, mind. Still need to find it...’ He trailed off into a whisper. He wondered if the semi sentient orb was just sitting somewhere, in a little hollow and shaking as much as its physical form would allow it.

‘You remember what happened?’ Leliana asked leaned closer, turning him so he faced her.

‘ _Yes_ . No. No, I don’t.’ Res said, voice crackling. ‘I can _see_ it happening. I’ve seen the roof get blown apart seventy-two times now.’

Res shook slightly, eyes staring through Leliana. ‘That short lady, she almost got out the door. _Almost_. She got it half open and then she’s gone.’

Leliana’s eyes suddenly held some kind of understanding. ‘Visions? You’re having visions?’

‘The stones showed me. It’s still doing it. There goes the roof again, _oh my_. I wonder if those two knew each other? I hope they’re happy together.’ His suddenly focused on Leliana. ‘Get me off the ground, Leliana, please get it away from me.’

‘What?’ Leliana asked. ‘ _Get you away from the ground_?’

‘ _It’s my fault_.’ Res said suddenly, disregarding the notion of explaining anything because it didn’t matter. He looked at his marked hand.

It was shaking and bleeding. He vaguely remembered attempting to claw the mark out around the time he had seen the roof blow apart for the twenty-fifth time.

‘It’s my fault. I picked _it_ up. I...it’s...it... _I picked it up_. It wasn’t mine! _But I picked it up_ _willingly_. I didn’t know what it was, what it would do, the woman knocked it out of the man’s hand. I-I _think_ I _thought_ I was helping her? _I-I wanted to help her._ ’

Res rambled, words flowing like a wild river after too much rain. He wasn’t sure if Leliana could make out what he was saying anymore.

_Did it matter?_

‘Listen to me!’ Leliana said and grabbing on to his shoulders. ‘Focus on me.’

‘Leliana, the stone’s memory is louder than _you_ . _You have to get it away from me_.’ Res said, trying to pull out of her grasp. She was stronger than she looked and kept him in place.

His eyes went back to one of the soldiers Leliana had with her. ‘I don’t think the mark is going work.’ He said, smiling and looking to the sword on the soldier’s hip. ‘But I _know_ what will.’ He said, tearing out of Leliana’s grip and lunged for the soldier’s sword.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In elfquest, the event that brought the elves' space traveling ancestors to Abode was a rebellion started by trolls, who are green,small (smaller than Varric) and humanoid in shape.  
> They rebelled, making the ship, which looked like a massive Palace at the time, crash onto a primitive, magic-less world.
> 
> A number of them were butchered by early man right after the fall and the rest were driven away from their ship, effectively stranding them.  
> Their magic was mangled by the world, a shadow of what they used to be and they basically had to start over with everything.


	10. Ascending,descending and knocking down trees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the previous chapter I felt like writing something a bit more light.  
> *Laughing,crying* Flemeth is going to murder me.

-Meanwhile, somewhere above Thedas.-

The shining, multi colored orb struggled to grasp what was going on.

It was flying.

It usually did that, but for the most part it didn’t have a massive explosion propelling it up into the furthest atmosphere of a planet.

It was caught in a momentum that was now forcing it down back to the world’s surface.

It was falling.

The last time that had happened, the oldest part of it had been bigger and it had been bringing the shapeless ones to a new world.

_That had been a bad time_ , the orb recalled with as much panic as it could.

Vast minds had panicked and it fell through time and space, crashing on a cold world.

The orb slammed through a big lizard with wings and continued downwards.

\-----

-Somewhere near Lake Calenhad-

Flemeth crossed her arms and regarded the Breach with hard eyes.

So many things had happened in the last couple of hours.  

The temple of sacred ashes was no more, thousands were dead, demons were spilling into the world, templars and mages were murdering each other once again.

The sound of something hurtling through the air took her attention away from the Breach and towards a little, bright object in the sky.

It punched through the trunk of an old oak, slamming into the ground with a deafening crash.

The oak creaked and fell over, birds frantically fleeing from its branches.

\----

The orb registered it was being held by somebody.

It was often held in soft hands.

_It was nice. It liked being held._

The hand holding it was not soft. It was clad in cold metal and sharp claws were closed around it.

‘Now.’ The new-holder said. ‘What do we have here?’

The new-holder was amused.

Maker-holder hadn’t been amused in some time and last time he had been very upset.

_That had been a bad time too,_ the orb decided and tried to wiggled free from the hand holding it.

The hand just tightened its hold on it and a pair of golden eyes stared into it.

The orb let its energy bleed into its now holder. Information was important, maker-holder would approve.

_Old old old and two in one_ , it sensed quickly and pulled back its energy.

‘Hmmm?’ New-older-holder hummed and slid a finger across its surface.

It shifted its colours in a threatening manner, turning red. That earned it a chuckle. ‘A most interesting little device with a little mind of its own.’

The eyes stared into it. Deep,deeper and deeper still, trying to see what _it_ was. ‘Who made you?’

It let her see an image of a frazzled and scared looking Res.

‘Go on?’ The woman said, looking deeper. ‘What are you?’

It was an orb, it showed her.

It was chunk of crystal getting torn from a wall by the oldest of the shapeless to defend himself from angry creatures.

It was a Palace.

It was a Starship.

It was a crashing ship and its passengers were in pain, panicking and _it failed them_.

It let the New-older-holder feel and see that moment where everything went wrong.

She released it very fast and shot off towards the mountains, intent on finding its maker-holder.

\--------

‘Interesting…’ Flemeth said and put a hand on her head, reeled in her thoughts and silenced the screams of unfathomable panic that echoed in her mind.

The orb shot towards the mountains with alarming speed.

She raised an eyebrow as it knocked another tree down without slowing whatsoever.

\----

‘I’m not leaving this house, son!’ An elderly man snapped. He stood outside his house, arms crossed and face set in a defiant frown. ‘I built this house! As long as it stands, I stay!’

His wife sighed while his son pulled at his face from the seat of a horse cart. ‘Father. For the last time! We can’t stay here! Demons are spilling from holes in the air and sky! We have to flee!’

His daughter poked her head up from the loaded cart. ‘We have all the furniture, father. You’d be guarding an empty house! Get on, you daft git!’

‘House’s up, I stay!’ The old man snapped and held his head high.

His wife lifted her head suddenly and looked back towards the woodland. ‘You hear that sound?’

‘You mean the sound of the world ending?’ Her son asked mockenly.

‘No, _that_ sound. Trees falling…?’ The woman said and narrowed her eyes at the woods. She raised a gnarled finger. ‘Look.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Her husband snapped and looked over just in time to see the biggest tree on their land fall after something small and shining blasted through it.

A orb hurtled across their field, faster than an arrow and tore through the empty house, hitting the wooden load bearing beam.

The house creaked painfully and promptly collapsed.

‘I...I...I can rebuild!’ The elderly man stammered when the dust had settled.

‘Dragon’s coming.’ His wife said on the cart.

‘WHAT!’ The man exclaimed, eyes bulging at the dark purple dragon that was seemingly following the orb.

It looked down at them as it flew, opened it massive maw and torched what remained on the house.

‘RIGHT! SIGN OF THE MAKER! LET’S GO!’ The elderly man yelled and climbed into the cart.’ GET GOING SON!’

\----

‘This is deeply fascinating.’ Frederic, professor in Draconology said and wrote as fast as he could.  
  
‘ _Terrifying_.’ His companion corrected him. ‘You mean deeply terrifying!’

‘I was unaware of dragons having such a playful side to them!’ Frederic said and looked back to the gigantic specimen that was currently flying around in circles.

‘It’s not being playful, Frederic!’ His friend exclaimed.

‘It is! It’s chasing its own tail!’ Frederic replied and pointed to beast in the sky.

‘It’s holding something in its claws!’ His friend snapped and tossed his hands into the air. ‘Can’t you see it!? It’s shining! It’s pulling the dragon _around_!’

‘Preposterous!’ Frederic said and waved dismissively at him. ‘Something so small can’t move a dragon!’

\---

Flemeth wasn’t entirely sure why she had decided to grab the orb mid flight.

_A test of strength_ , some part of her suggested as the orb pulled her into a tenth spin and suddenly yanked her down towards the ground. A _battle of wills._

It was scream-singing at her, light shifting rapidly between furious red and sheer white.

Her wings beat downwards and should have kept her up.

But that orb, that tiny, determined orb _pulled her down_.

\---

The dragon roared in outrage as it crashed into a collection of trees.

A few seconds later, Frederic saw a glowing orb blast away, heading for the Frostbacks.

The dragon shot up into the air and tore after it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can always ask me questions!


	11. Stressed mind and broken stone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaand back to Res losing his mind.

‘How did he get this far that fast?’ Cassandra asked, dropping down from a ledge. ‘Why didn’t you run after him?’ She looked at Varric. ‘You two are almost friends by now.’

‘You saw the look in his eyes, Seeker.’ Varric said, jumping down after her. ‘Running after him would have made it worse.’

Cassandra opened her mouth to argue, but the sound of scrambling and yelling cut her off.

’I just think it’s worth trying!’ The voice of Cassandra’s prisoner reached their ears. ‘The mark isn’t going to work. Might as well just take that sword and cut off my head!  **_GIVE ME THAT SWORD_ **!’

More scrambling and yelling followed.

‘OFF THE GROUND!’ Leliana yelled. ‘CANTABER, LIFT HIM OFF THE GROUND!’

‘That doesn’t sound good.’ Solas said as the group reached the entrance to a hallway.

‘Leliana!’ Cassandra called, rounding the corner with her sword drawn.

Her prisoner was currently being held by Corporal Cantaber, a powerhouse of a woman that towered over most people.

’PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN AND GIVE ME THAT SWORD! IT WILL FIX _EVERYTHING_!’ Cassandra’s prisoner screamed, his legs kicking against the corporal’s much longer ones, while his fingers clawed against her armour.

‘You’re here! Thank the Maker!’ Leliana said with relief, while Cantaber moved a hand over the prisoner’s mouth, effectively silencing him.

‘What’s going on?’ Cassandra asked, sheathing her sword again, her eyes going from the prisoner to Leliana.

‘He’s seeing visions.’ Leliana said just as the elf in Cantaber’s arms seemed to lose all his energy and slumped forward.

‘Visions?’ Solas asked, head tilting to the side. ‘Did he say what he saw?’

‘The temple’s destruction.’ Lelian said, looking over to the unconscious elf with some pity. ‘People dying. Again and again.’

‘How was he was seeing these things? Solas asked, looking at the Breach with a raised eyebrow. ‘I doubt the Breach can give so vivid visions it drove him into a frenzy that fast.’

‘He said it was the ‘stone's memory.’ Cantaber spoke up, removing her hand from the elf’s face.

‘Stone? What kind of stone are we talking about here?’ Varric asked next to her. ‘Stone with a capital S?’

‘The rock.’ Leliana said and pointed to the ground. ‘He told us to get him away from it.’

She looked over to Cassandra. ‘What happened to him? He was fine in the forward camp?’  
  
‘We don’t have time for this.’ Cassandra said and went to move further in.  
  
‘Cassandra.’ Leliana said firmly and made the other woman stop.

‘I...don’t know. He started behaving oddly when he got to the top of that mine.’ Cassandra replied, and looked at Varric. ‘You were right behind him, did you see anything?’

‘I heard him say ‘Alone, I’m alone.’ when I got up there.’ Varric said quietly, looking at the unconscious elf’s bleeding hand. ‘He was calling for somebody named ‘Charring’...’

Cassandra grimaced, as if she didn’t want to hear that part.

‘... _why are you holding me?_ ’

Cassandra’s prisoner was wide awake and looking up at Cantaber with a great deal of confusion.

‘You don’t remember what just happened?’ Leliana asked, stepping up to him.

‘...do I want to?’ The dark skinned elf asked, giving Leliana a suspicious look.

‘Interesting. He’s repressing it.’ Solas said, also stepping closer to the other elf. ‘You picking him up broke whatever connection he has to the stone. It’s allowed him to reset his mind.’

‘Oh.’ The other elf said quietly and looked up at the Breach, ignoring Solas. ‘We’re...here.’ His fingers scraped against Cataber’s armoured arms.  

\----

‘We don’t have time for this!’ Cassandra snapped and turned to Leliana. ‘Have your men take up positions around the temple.’ She pointed to a set of stairs that lead further in.

Leliana nodded and started ordering the soldiers around.

‘This is your chance to end this. Are you ready?’ She asked Res as the soldiers rushed up the stairs and into their positions.  

Res blinked owlish at her and looked up at the Breach. ‘I can’t fly.’ He said and tilted his head back to look at the woman holding him. ‘I guess you could toss me up there? I mean, you _could_ try.’

’Hmm.’ Cantaber hummed and jostled him a bit. ‘I _could_. You don’t weigh anything.’

‘Let’s not start tossing anybody around.’ Varric said, sending the two of them a rather worried look.

‘I could curl up into ball.’ Res suggested to Cantaber. ‘Or you could tie me to a spear and toss that? That might work better? Oh!’ He lightly kicked one her metal clad legs. ‘A catapult! Do you have catapults?’

She gave him a concerned look and shook her head at him.

‘No.’ Solas said, stepping up to Cassandra. ‘This _rift_ was the first and is the key. Seal it, and perhaps we seal the Breach.’ He pointed at a big mass of black-green crystals that hung near the statue. ‘We just need to reach it.’

‘No need to toss anybody!’ Varric said, clapping his hand together and stepped in front of Cantaber.

‘But…’ Res protested weakly, slightly kicking his feet against Cantaber’s legs.

‘No! No tossing!’ Varric declared sharply.

\-----

Leliana’s soldiers were looking at him with expressions he couldn’t read.

‘...did I do something?’ Res mumbled tiredly and looked up at Cantaber again. ‘ _Why_ are you holding me?’

‘You were seeing things.’ Cantaber explained. ‘You said you saw the temple blow up, from the stone’s memory.’

‘Stone's memory?’ Res repeated with a frown before looking down at the floor and then at his feet. ‘Oh.’ He swung his legs. ‘Of course. _I understand._ ’ He made an odd noise in the back of his throat. ‘ _That might be the only thing to make sense today_.’

‘Is it safe to set you down again?’ Cantaber asked, ducking as they went under some massive stone pillars that served as a roof.

‘No.’ Res said, eyes darting around the area nervously. ‘I’m fairly sure it’s no- oh!’

As they came out from under the stone roof, Cantaber jostled him around a bit, unwrapping her arms from his frame and pulled him onto her right shoulder.

‘Oh...’ Res mumbled and grabbed onto the handle of a massive club Cantaber had on her back for some support. This was... _weird_.

He spotted Solas sending him an outraged look.

‘You...could just have carried me under your arm?’ He whispered down to Cantaber.

‘Going to need that for fighting.’ She replied. ‘Don’t want ‘em to get tired from carrying you.’

‘ **Now is the hour of our victory. Bring forth the sacrifice**.’  A voice boomed suddenly, seemingly coming from nowhere.  

‘What are we hearing?’ Cassandra asked, looking to Res who shrugged.

‘At a guess, the person who created the Breach.’ Solas suggested.

‘Doesn’t sound like him.’ Cantaber said, taking a hold of Res’ ankle to ensure he didn’t slip off.

They went further in, passing soldiers who were ready with their bows.

Res heard the red stones before he saw them. They sang to him, asking him help, to mend them. He tightened his grip on the handle of Cantaber’s club.

‘You know this stuff is red lyrium, Seeker.’ Varric warned.

‘I see it, Varric.’ Cassandra said, looking at the glowing stone with dismay.

‘Please get me away from those _things_.’ Res said quietly to Cantaber.

‘It’s bothering you?’ She asked and upped her pace, moving away from Cassandra and the others.

‘Oh, nearly everything bothers me today.’ Res said tiredly, placing a hand on his head. ‘But those...stones are _talking_ to me. Telling me to come over and touch them. _They’re lonely and ill_.’  

Cantaber tightened her grip around Res’ ankle, almost reassuringly.

‘ **Keep the sacrifice still.** ’ The voice boomed again.

‘ **Someone help me**!’ Another voice cried.

Res winced uncomfortably. He knew that one.  

‘That is Divine Justinia’s voice!’ Cassandra called, rushing to catch up with them as they moved down a set of stairs, reaching their goal.

 _Justinia_.

Res bit his lip. It was...nice to know the name of the woman that sounded so scared in his head.

\---

‘You ready?’ Cantaber asked as she moved towards the final ledge before their destination.

‘...if I tell myself that rift is Feivin _and_ Flying Thief, I might just be able to banish _them_ from reality by sheer spite.’ Res said, narrowing his eyes at the rift.

‘Somebody giving you trouble?’ Cantaber guessed, glancing up at Res.

‘Oh, like you won’t believe!’ Res whispered.

‘We can talk about that later, if you want?’ Cantaber said, coming to a stop.

‘You’re assuming I survive this...’ Res murmured softly, took a deep breath and slid off Cantaber’s shoulder.

‘You will, you hear?’ She said as he jumped down from the ledge and headed towards the rift.

\---

His mark flared as he came closer to the rift.

‘Someone help me!’ Justinia’s voice pleaded.

'I see…you have taken to sacrificing your own elders now?’ Res heard himself say.

‘That was your voice.’ Cassandra said, coming up behind him. ‘Most Holy called out to you. But…‘

The ambient energies around the rift flared, cutting her off as faint, see-through images emerged in air.

A shadowy man with long limbs and sharp fingers towered over a woman held by red magic.

The next thing Res saw was himself appearing, seemingly shoving open two big doors and entering the room.

‘What…precisely are you doing?’ The faint vision of himself asked, looking from the dark figure to the woman.

‘Run while you can! Warn them!’ Justinia ordered him.

‘We have an intruder.’ The tall figure said, turning his head towards the image of Res. ‘Kill him. _Now_.’  

‘Crags, did you do something special to become that incredibly ugly?’ The vision-Res jeered at the figure.

Res gawked at himself. What had prompted _that_?

The rift flared brightly, making the onlookers cover their eyes as the images vanished.

‘You _were_ there! Who attacked?’ Cassandra asked angrily and stepped in front of Res. ‘And the Divine, is she…? Was this vision true? What are we seeing?’

‘I-I don’t remember! I saw that and I don’t remember doing it!‘ Res stammered, shaking his head wildly.

‘Echoes of what happened here. The Fade bleeds into this place.’ Solas interrupted, stepping up close to the rift, studying it.

‘This rift is not sealed, but it is closed…albeit temporarily. I believe with the mark, the rift can be opened and then sealed properly and safely. However, opening the rift will likely attract attention from the other side.’

‘That means demons. Stand ready!’  Cassandra called and everyone got into place.

\----

Res felt Cassandra’s eyes digging in the back of his head. He glanced at her just in time to see her nod at him.

He stepped closer to the rift and held his hand up to it.

The mark erupted outwards as two long, bright green tendrils and connected to the rift.

It flared, the black-green stone shot into its core, becoming small, before violently shooting outwards again.

A beam of sickly green light shot from the rift as it opened, and a massive, spiky, pale grey demon manifested.

‘PRIDE DEMON!’ Cantaber roared and charged together with Cassandra.

‘Oh.’ Res sighed as the demon’s nine eyes landed on him instantly. _‘Wonderful_.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Waves at Jaselin and Reecey* I'm very happy to see you reading and commenting! Keeps me going!


	12. Running around in circles and other valid strategies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're almost done with the game's tutorial!  
> (Crying) No, we're not...

_ It was laughing at him _   
  
Res tossed his staff at the Pride demon. It bounced of its hard skin and went flying. His daggers went next and were just as ineffective.   
_   
_ It laughed louder.

‘It’s not funny!’ Res screeched as a whip of lightning slammed down on the spot he had been one second ago.

He darted around the massive base of the statue’s platform, the Pride demon tearing after him seconds later. ‘ _ It’s not funny. STOP LAUGHING!’  _

He managed to avoid a massive ball of energy as he turned around another corner of the statue’s base.

‘FOCUS ON THE RIFT!’ Cassandra yelled over the sound of the energy ball impacting against the wall.

He would like to, but the demon wouldn’t let him. Eight people were attacking the damn thing on the ground and it just wouldn’t leave  _ him  _ alone.

He had tried sending at it. Hoping it would make lose interest in him the other demons had.

It had the opposite effect. It was running at full speed after him, almost heedlessly.

Res raced around another corner and dashed in between the statue and the jagged wall.   
  
_ Maybe… _ __   
_   
_ He pulled at the stone wall as he ran, forcing it to move.  __ To fall forward.

There was a loud, painful sound of something slamming into rock,scraping against it. Res looked over his shoulder to see the demon had become stuck at the statue’s side and the rockwall which had shot forward, snagging its shoulders.

He sled to a stop, catching his breath. The demon snarled at both him and the fighters that were now slamming into it from one side.

That seemed to annoy it, as it sent a energy ball after them with a finger snap.

‘Oh, please…’ Res groaned as it floored half of the fighters on the field.

The archers fired away, safe on the upper area. As did Varric and Solas who had been further away from the main group of attackers.

Res looked from the demon to the stone it was trapped by. He could do a fair few things with stone beside getting attacked by its memories.    
  
He recalled a trick he had been fond of during the old wars and walked back towards the demon on legs that shook and placed his hands on the statue’s base.

\----

Solas cast ice on the Pride demon, encasing its torso in it, just as massive stone spikes erupted from the ground, the ruined statue and the rock-wall next to it.

It screamed as the spikes shot through its legs and torso like a primitive trap.

The rift shuddered violently and collapsed in on itself, light falling from it like curtains.

Solas took a step back, staring at the now impaled demon in something close to horror.   
  
‘THE RIFT! CLOSE IT!!’ Cassandra yelled, getting up and plunged her sword into the demon’s already damaged leg.

On the other side of the demon, he could see Cassandra’s prisoner stumble away from the dying demon and headed towards the diminished rift.

A few moments later the rift exploded upwards and the demon crumbled. 

**\------**

People were yelling at each other, at the Breach that still hung in the sky, but Solas didn’t hear them.

He stared at the now empty stone spikes, shaking his head in bewilderment.   
  
What were they dealing with?

What was  _ he  _ dealing with?   
  
An ancient elf?   
  
_ Why did he only have four fingers? _ __   
_   
_ __ Why could he control stone?

**\----**

The pain of being flung away from the rift and getting slammed into the ground was nothing compared to the mark breaking free, rushing up through his arm and arcing through his head, leaving his vision an almost solid green.

Sound became muffled before becoming horrifically loud again. He tried to move, only managing to turn onto his side, limbs jittering.

People yelled at each other or at the Breach some distance from him.

‘IT’S STILL THERE!’ Somebody screamed in near hysterics. ‘IT’S STILL THERE!’

‘Maker have mercy...’

‘It’s the end...this is the end of all things.’

Res groaned in pain, the fingers of his right hand managing to grab hold of some kind of ledge he was near.

Breathing hurt,  _ everything  _ hurt and his sight was green.

Over the pain he wondered if all of this was somehow the punishment for cancelling his Recognition with Feivin. 

‘No…’ He tried to shake his head and heard his metallic headpiece scrape against the ground. ‘ _ No _ .’

_ It was a faulty thing and Feivin’s ilk were idiots for worshiping it. _

He felt the mark trail down the other side of his head, going for his other arm.   
  
He told himself to stop. To banish Feivin out of his mind and focus completely on the mark. Rebuild the nest and make the screaming thing  _ silent _ .

Feet fell over the rock, rushing towards one person.

‘We-we should leave!’ One of the soldiers yelled.

‘It’s not safe here!’

‘Seeker Cassandra, what do we do?!’

‘Where is  _ he _ ?! Anybody see where he went?’ Cassandra yelled.

‘Did he run?’

‘Oh no...please...we’re done for if he did.’

‘What is his name?!’

‘He wouldn’t say...’ Leliana replied.

Res heard heavy feet, scraping against stone, running up an incline and felt hands trying to turn him over. His right hand holding into stone made it difficult.

‘Fancy?’ He heard Varric say. ‘You’re still with us?’

‘ _S_ _ top ruining your nest. Stupid, screaming, baby bird _ .’ Res whispered as he tried to get all his magic back in its place and force the mark back down. 

He would rebuild its damn nest, better this time.

It would take time and sleep, he thought dimly. He might wake up just in time to see somebody swinging an ax at him, but he would driven it back.

‘Fancy?’ Goodness, Varric sounded worried.

He felt Varric grab his chin and turned his face up towards him. 

‘Andraste's tits, you’re blind.’ Varric said and tried to turn him over again. ‘Fancy, can you let go of the ground?’

Res’ fingers stubbornly stayed where they were.    
  
‘Fancy, say something?’ Varric tried again.

‘ _ Stupid.Screaming.Bird _ .’ Res replied as the fingers of his left hand twitching.

‘Seeker!’ Varric called over his shoulder. ‘Is Fancy’s trial and execution off the table by any chance? All things considered?’

‘...You found him?’ Cassandra asked. He heard feet running towards him again. ‘The rift flung him over here? Is he...?’

‘He’s alive,belligerent and scolding the mark. Help me turn him around? He’s holding onto the ground.’ Varric asked.

Cassandra moved around them. Res felt her hand pry his from the ledge, allowing Varric to get him in more comfortable position. 

_ Possibly _ , he couldn’t tell anymore. Everything was painful. 

‘The mark…’ Cassandra said quietly. He felt a hand on his cheek. ‘It’s look like spiderweb now…’ 

More feet came towards them.

‘It’s killing him.’ Solas said. ‘His magic can’t hold it back anymore. We have to get him back to Haven, quickly.’

More people moved towards him.

‘- Maker, he’s alive? Bless!’

The voices began to grow fainter.

‘- not safe here.’

‘- ack to Haven.’

‘He can’t walk.’ Varric said above him to Cassandra.

‘Corporal Cantaber!’ Cassandra called.

’When I’m done, you’ll only sing when I  _ let  _ you.’ Res whispered at the mark as Cantaber lifted him up, her arms slipping in under his knees and around his shoulders. 

His attention faded from the waking world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been fighting with this chapter for a day.  
> I'm gonna go draw Res with his hair stuck in a door.


	13. Green places and patient’s notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OBLIGATORY FADE SECTION

_ \- Note written by Adan, alchemist - _

_ Vain hope: Hopefully someone better at this than me takes over before the survivor expires. Notes in case. _

_ —Day One— _

_ \- Clammy. Shallow breathing. Pulse over-fast. Not responsive.  _

_ \- Mage says his scarring "mark" is thrumming with unknown magic. Also tells me the man’s own magic is fighting down the mark. _

_ \- Late night: The green lines across his skin have faded. Patient’s  _ _ eyes have returned to normal and he should be able to see again.  _

_ \----- _

_ The Fade, the place with the green sky, was a fascinating place _ , Res thought as he slid down a floating rock and landed on the hand of a massive statue of a woman with…

He tilted his head, staring at the statue’s head. Was that horns? Or some kind of headgear?

His magic was busy rebuilding a better structured nest for the mark and did so without his meddling.

It just needed time and quiet. Allowing him to rest or absurdly, go climbing in another place if he wished, as it worked to contain the mark like it was particularly angry and belligerent Applesnapper-hen. 

He stayed on the statue’s hand for a while, looking over the immensely odd landscape where small waterfalls fell from stones that levitated. 

\-----

He found two bodies, skin dark with age and decay on a small hill in an area that was flooded.

A plate of cheese was placed between them and both bodies were reaching for it.

He slid down the hill to go elsewhere, almost smacking into a bookshelf filled with pieces of cheese that was just... _ standing _ there. 

\-----

He found a large dining table with seats for six. It was fully decorated with lit candles, metallic goblets and plates filled with food.

‘If you considered ram, pig heads and fish bones food.’ Res murmured, and looked at the plate furthest away from him. The pie looked good.

Said table was stuck to the side of a large, vertical pillar Res was standing next to.

\----

A Pride demon narrowed its eyes.   
  
There was a...beacon in the Fade and demons were heading towards it, compelled by some need they couldn't understand. 

The Pride demon shook its head as a Wraith flew past it, heading for a sometimes moving light in the distance.

It had seen others do the same thing and they hadn’t come back.

It moved, carefully.

\-----

It found the beacon and tilted its head at it.

It was elf.

It tilted its head a bit further.

It was something most would recognize as an elf. But elves couldn’t turn demons to dust just by them getting close to them. This was something else.   
  
Something  _ new _ .

A Wraith crumbled into dust when the elf held up a four fingered hand to stop it from reaching him.

There was dust all around the man who was past the point of being scared and was now just plainly bewildered by the demons throwing themselves at him.

‘Would you please stop?’ He asked another Wraith as it tried to touch him. ‘I don’t know what you’re doing, but I don’t think it’s working?’  

A Despair demon came next.

Then a Rage demon.

They all went the same way and became dust at the elf’s feet.

The man sat down heavily on a rock formation, staring at the dusty remains before looking up the Pride demon.

‘Um...’ The man said nervously. ‘Stay aw-...oh?’

The Pride demon sat down and stared.  

\---

The green sky warped above him.

‘Um…’ Res started, biting the side of his lower lip. ‘ You’re so much bigger than the others. And you haven’t thrown yourself at me. You...you must be stronger than the rest?’

The demon kept staring at him.

‘It would make some weird sense, I guess?’ Res said, mostly to himself, thinking back to the fight with the first Pride demon. When they had been going towards the Breach, the other demons had fled from him when his mind touched theirs, but the Pride demon had come  _ after  _ him.

Here in the Fade, demons couldn’t stop themselves from throwing themselves at him, but the Pride demon was seemingly somewhat immune?

It was just... _ ogling _ him.   
\-----

The mark grew quieter as time passed. 

At least he thought time passed? It didn’t seem to really exist in the Fade. Or the forest he was currently sitting in.

The forest had showed up suddenly when he had started thinking how he was honestly starting to miss trees in the rocky land.    

It was doing a very good impression of the forest back home, he thought, looking at the blue, glowing leaves above him.

Res blinked as a Wraith crumbled in on itself, its dust landing beside him.

‘That’s the ninth one.’ The Pride demon named Sage chuckled. It was sitting a fair bit away from him, mimicking his cross legged posse.

Well, as much as it could, its legs were impressively big.

‘Why do they keep doing that?’ Res asked, picking up the demon’s dust-like remains, letting it fall between his fingers like sand. ‘Running towards me and dying, I mean?’    
  
He had gotten it talking after a while. It seemingly enjoyed his lack of knowledge on  _ everything  _ here.

‘You shine like the sun and they’re dimwitted moths.’ The Pride demon replied, while Res went back to shaping things in the dark, stone pillar he had been sitting by for some time now. 

‘I burn them?’ Res asked as he forced a little part of the stone into looking like the Pride demon. ‘I’m a rockshaper, not a firemaker. It’s not in my bloodline.’ He moved slightly away from the pillar.

‘It doesn’t matter what skills you have.’ The demon chuckled. ‘It’s your very  _ being  _ that burns them. You’re a beacon here. A beacon that only leads to their doom.’

‘What would they do if they could get to me?’ Res asked curiously.

‘Possess you. Take your body and walk in the waking world.’ Sage explained.

‘I...could barely move the last time I was awake.’ Res said, rubbing his left arm absentmindedly. ‘Should I try and tell them that?’

‘They wouldn’t care.’ Sage laughed and leaned just a bit closer to him. It’s nine eyes narrowing curiously. ‘You aren’t like anything anybody has seen, elf.’

Talking with Sage was helping him to piece some things together. The Fade was a place of...dreams? Nightmares? The home of spirits and demons, a place where dreamers went when they slept.

He didn’t like the comment about being  _ new  _ to this place. It lead his thoughts towards the bizarre explanations for where he could be...   
  
He shook his head and looked back to the demon. 

‘You haven’t tried anything. Not in the mood to...what was it,  _ possess  _ me?’ He asked, spotting something moving in-between the trees.

Spirits, the Pride demon had told him earlier. They came too, but were content to move about in the trees. He didn’t seem to pull them in.

‘I don’t feel like turning into kindling for your eternal soul’s fire, elf.’ The demon rumbled.

‘I feel so unloved, Sage.’ Res replied with a mock frown and pointed at the newly made statue that stuck out of the pillar. ‘Turn this into something else.’

The demon tilted its head at him. ‘What for?’ It asked.

‘We talked about this before...’ Res said and stopped himself, frown deepening. ‘Some hours ago? No, a day ago...? Time isn’t a thing, is it?’ He jabbed the stone with a finger, trying to focus. ‘You said you can change this place as you wish? With your will?’

‘Yes.’ The demon replied tilting its head back into place.

‘Change this into something else?’ Res said, tapping the figure. ‘I would like to see  _ how  _ you do it?’

The demon dragged its eyes away from Res and gazed at the figure.

The stone pillar morphed into a large bush, but the stone figure remained here it was, sticking out awkwardly.

‘Instant change.’ Res said, pressing his against the plant. ‘Didn’t feel any kind of magic manipulating it, figure is still there...’

He removed his hands and looked at the Pride Demon with a raised eyebrow.

The demon narrowed its eyes at the bush.

It turned into a fluffy cloud.

The stone figure remained.

A pile of dark leaves with the stone figure sticking out appeared next.

The demon grumbled and looked back to Res. ‘It can’t be done.’ It said.

‘Why is that?’ Res asked, touching the leaves with his hands.

‘Your  _ magic _ .’ The pride demon said and reached for the little figure of itself while Res tossed the leaves into the air above his head. ‘It doesn’t come from this place. It ignores my will. It makes  _ this... _ ’ it took the figure into its massive hands. ‘- as unchangeable as the world beyond the Veil.’

\--------

Res closed his eyes, let his mind reach for his physical form and was met with a wall of pain. His own magic hissed at him to ‘ _ go away _ ’ and he felt what he could only describe as a hammer slamming into metal viciously.

‘You’re shaking, elf.’ Sage said as his eyes snapped open again.

Res looked down at his hands to see Sage was telling the truth.

‘Aarh, yes.’ Res muttered, pressing his hands against each other. ‘Seems I’m staying for while longer.’

Sage nodded and went back to ogling him.

\----

-Waking world, Haven, nightfall.-

Solas moved away from the unconscious elf with a jolt.

‘Is...everything alright?’ Adan asked from the writing desk where he was preparing herbs.

‘Yes…’ Solas said quietly. ‘The mark is getting forced back to his hand.’

‘That’s good.’ Adan said, giving him a long look. ‘Isn’t it?’

‘It is!  _ Yes _ .’ Solas agreed, leaning over the other elf. ‘It’s just...happening so fast.’

He had been looking through his knapsack for a minute. When he had looked back the green spiderweb markings that had decorated the other elf’s face were gone, beaten down to his elbow.

\---

-Back in the Fade -

The green sky warped and changed above him, the demon stayed where it was and kept ogling him while they talked about little and big things.

They heard footsteps racing over ground and a new demon burst into the clearing, its form shifting sharply with each long step it took. Its arms reaching for Res.  

‘What’s that?’ Res asked, tilting his head to side to look. He couldn’t be bothered to tell the demon not to touch him or even sit up as this point. They didn’t listen once they saw him.

‘Desire demon.’ Sage rumbled in a bored tone as the other demon bolted past it and tossed itself at Res, crumbling as it got close to him.

‘A full ten.’ The Pride demon chuckled darkly as Res dusted himself off and went back to looking at the sky.

They heard more footsteps approaching, these were calmer.

‘Really, I feel slightly insulted here.’ A new voice said in mock outrage. ‘There’s a whole bowl full of grapes here and the demon just runs off! Didn’t even try and- oh?’

‘That doesn’t sound like a demon.’ Res said from his pile of leaves.

‘A mage.’ The Pride demon says, its nine eyes briefly darting over to the newcomer. 

Res blinked and in the next non-second, a man with a fancy mustache, dark skin and black hair leaned in over him.

‘I do hope you’re not making deals with this demon?’ He asked with some concern.

‘No?’ Res said, picking up a rather big leaf and twirled it. ‘Sage has been a perfect...erh, gentle demon?’

The man’s expression became a mixture of disgruntled and confused.

‘It has?’ He exclaimed, his pale blue-grey eyes narrowing in suspicion. ‘And you don’t think that’s odd?’

‘I’ve seen odder things, really.’ Res replied with shrug of his shoulders. ‘It’s mostly just been sitting there and ogling me.’

‘ _ Ogling  _ you?’ The man repeated sharply.

‘I don’t mind.’ Res said and held up his hands in a defensive manner.

The man turned his head to look at the Pride demon. ‘You haven’t tried to possess or harm him? Trick him?’ He tilted his head slightly. ‘Very curious here. Why?’

‘Look at your feet mage. Not all you stand on is earth.’ The Pride demon laughed.

The man looked down, exclaimed ‘Venhedis!’ and jumped away from Res.

‘That...looks like the remains of several demons.’ The man said, staring at the faint dust piles that lay scattered around Res.

‘Ten if we’re going to be specific.’ Res interjected helpfully.

‘He burns them, mage. They see him and they run to him.’ The demon said with a chuckle.

‘And turn to  _ dust _ ?’ The man asked, with an alarmed expression.

The man became quiet for some time.

\-----

Res shot up abruptly.

‘ _ Mage _ ?’ He muttered, eyes narrow.  _ ‘Mage  _ is what you call people with magic skills here,yes?’

‘Yes!’ The man said brightly. ‘Do you not...have mages?’ His eyes darted over to Sage in puzzlement.

‘But...humans…’ Res said, shaking his head wildly. ‘The planet...magic! It doesn’t...wait, how did you eve-’

Sage clapped its massive hands, startling Res out of rambling himself into a frenzy.

The mage looked from Res to Sage.

‘I can’t believe I’m asking a Pride demon this, but...is he quite alright?’ He asked, sounding genuinely worried. 

‘He’s seen so many new things, mage.’ Sage replied, watching Res as he kept mouthing the word ‘magic’ with increasingly confused expressions. ‘Most of them fly in the face of what he knows.’

\----

\- In the waking world, Haven -

Solas rubbed his eye as he left the cabin. There was nothing more he could do. But the mark was on the retreat again, battered back by foreign magic and would likely be contained by it before midnight.

Adan had told him to get some rest. He would keep an eye on the patient for now.

‘He’s the Herald of Andraste!’ Somebody declared as he went up the stairs. It came from the chantry.

‘ _ A damn knife-ear? _ ’ A man’s voice snapped angrily. ‘The conclave blows up and you think Andraste sends some malformed knife-ear? He’s likely the one behind it all! Likely dug out the Divine’s heart with his vile four fingers and ate it!’

‘Jorric, that’s enough!’ A third voice said.

‘No, it isn’t!’ Jorric snarled. ‘Problems starts and it’s always a mage or an elf who’s at fault and he’s  _ both _ ! He’s guilty as the magisters that brought down the bloody Blight on us!’

There was sharp sound of flesh getting slapped.

‘How can you say that!’ The first voice snapped. ‘I heard the soldiers! He tried to help! I saw him when Cantaber carried him through the gates! He was beaten black and blue!’

‘And? The knife-ear deserves every bruise he gets!’ Jorric hissed. ‘He doesn’t deserve to be in that cabin! Should just have tossed him in the snow!

Jorric got another slap, much harder this time.

‘Doesn’t sound good, does it, Chuckles?’ Varric said from the opening of a nearby tent.

‘No. But it’s an expected reaction from them…’ Solas said quietly, listening to the argument as it went on.

‘Most of them aren’t like Jorric up there.’ Varric said, flinching as there was a sound of third slap. ‘The mood is shifting.’

‘Hopefully it shifts enough for the “Herald” to not get attacked by the people of Haven.’ Solas said, hearing guards breaking up the argument.

\----

-Fade-

‘What precisely have you been doing with this man, demon?’ The mage asked suddenly.

‘Talking.’ The demon answered, eyes not leaving Res who was still sitting upright. ‘He has so many questions.’

‘Questions?’ The man replied with a raised eyebrow. ‘About what?’

‘All things.’ The demon replied and pointed at Res with a sharp claw. “Why is the sky green? Why is that rock floating? Am I standing upside down or are you? Why do I keep running into pieces of cheese? Is that waterfall going up? Why is there a big, dark, swirling city in the sky?” It said, mimicking Res.   
  
The mage looked over to Res in pure bewilderment. 

‘He’s a child here, mage.’ Sage said. ‘New and knows nothing of this place or its rules. Rules that do not bind him.’

Res scuffed sharply and tossed few leaves the demon’s way. 

‘Tell me something?’ The mage asked and plucked a leaf from a low hanging branch. ‘Why are the leaves  _ glowing _ ? Aesthetic?’

‘The glow back home.’ Res explained. He dragged a finger in the earth, writing down “Fire-Rock”. ‘It’s the result of us pouring our magic into the land and making it  _ ours _ .’

‘In short, yes on the aesthetic?’ The mage asked brightly.

The Fade rumbled and rippled around them, the trees snapping out of sight.

‘What is he doing?’ The mage asked curiously and alarmed, as a fountain came into existence behind him.

Buildings, short and tall, shot up from the ground with alarming speed.

‘He’s changing it.’ The Pride demon chuckled as the ground beneath them became green marble and they were shot upwards.

The mage grabbed hold of a pillar from a pavilion that had just materialized and held on for dear life as the platform shot upwards. ‘HE’S SOMNIARI?!’ He yelled as winds whipped around them.

The platform stopped abruptly, almost sending the mage to floor.

‘What he can do is beyond your  _ dreamers _ , mage.’ The demon rumbled over the sound of more buildings coming into existence.

The mage got back on his feet, brushed himself off furiously and ventured over towards the edge of the platform, leaning against its railing.

‘A city!’ He exclaimed, eyes roaming the buildings of Fire-Rock, large and small, but all intricate.

The mage marveled at the sight of a massive, dark stoned obelisk, the base of which was surrounded by an eternal fire, trapped securely in a stone basin. 

Plants and flowers curled around the city’s archways and pillars, spilling from gardens kept on house roofs.

Further away, outside the almost circular city, a massive, glowing tree that bore purple apples came into existence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ask me anything.


	14. 14.Childhood trauma and arguing with oneself

‘There’s a city with hanging gardens in the Fade.’ Solas repeated to himself for the third time.

He had expected the Fade to look different since the Breach had opened, but nothing like this.

He steeled himself and ventured inside, pushing open a massive set of gates which closed after him.

Spirits and demons alike were roaming the city, exploring inside the houses, touching the plants that hung from the gardens and flew around a great obelisk in the distance.

He heard a familiar voice somewhere above him.

‘- and now we’re getting to the stupid part...’ The voice of the newly named Herald of Andraste said.

‘Oh?’ Another, unknown voice said. ‘Go on? If you want, of course.’

‘Well, he-’ The Herald’s voice was drowned by the yelling of an angry spirit that zipped past Solas.

‘IT WON’T BUDGE! IT WON’T BUDGE!’ It shrieked and darted towards the gates which it smacked right into.

It screeched loudly and darted upwards where it smacked right into the ceiling of an arch.

A loud, rumbling laughter from the upper platform followed.

Solas tilted his head. A Pride demon?

‘IT’S NOT FUNNY, SAGE!’ The spirit howled hysterically. ‘NOTHING BUDGES HERE!’

Solas moved away from the spirit and started looking for a set of stairs that would take him up to the two voices.

‘ _What?’_ The second voice exclaimed in outrage. ‘He fakes three people's deaths, abducts you, hides you away in a secret, underground chamber, but he doesn’t check what you were actually doing?!’

The Herald made an odd sound that could have been mistaken for laughter.

‘Bailon’s head was more than a little cracked.’ He said.

‘What happened to him?’ The other voice asked anxiously. ‘I can’t imagine he got away with all this?’

‘I...killed him when he showed up.’ The Herald continued. ‘He tried to explain himself to Darkfire.’ The Herald said blankly. ‘I didn’t let him.’

‘How...old were you?’ The unknown man asked carefully.

‘Oh, barely nine.’ The Herald said in a oddly light tone.

The two men became silent, letting Solas search for way to get closer to them.

\-----

Solas ended up entering the buildings in his quest for stairs. He did manage to find some, but they never came close to taking him up the the plaza the Herald and unknown man were on.

He had tried pulling at the Fade and force it take the form of a set of stairs, but the yelling spirit had been correct. Nothing in the city would budge or change, no matter how hard he tried.  
  
Solas took another flight of stairs and somehow ended up back in the dining place he had seen before.

The Rage demon he had seen before was now spewing fire on the roast.

He went up the stairs again.

\----

Solas found himself in a throne chamber built in dark blue stone he didn’t recognize.

Ten brazier carrying pillars dotted the room. The walls were decorated with trophies that consisted of spears, primitive masks, and one human-looking skull. An absurdly big bear skull rested on a raised platform.

The room’s throne was made from pale and twisted bone.  
  
A Desire demon was currently sitting in it, staring into the air as if mesmerized by something.

He left the room quickly.

\----

In the end Solas had to admit two things.   
  
One: He was lost.   
  
Two: The city was actively trying to keep him away from the two men.

He was out of time, the sun was raising soon. It would likely be noticed if he slept too long.

 

_—Day Two—_

_Pulse normal, breathing normal._

_Still unresponsive; careful drop-feed of prep. elfroot extract to hasten his recovery. Taken to it remarkably well._

_A lot of thrashing. Mutters in a language I can’t understand. Keeps mentioning ‘Feivin’, ‘Xirber’ and ‘Bailon’. Makes me think they’re names. Encouraging?_

\----

\- Fade-

The new city was still there and was an unchangeable part of the Fade. It was overrun by demons who almost seemed to...make themselves at home in the buildings.

Solas watched them move around in the buildings, down marble footpaths,around the dark stoned obelisk that towered above most of the buildings. Some were gazing in the water of a fountain.

He backed out the gates, pulling them closed after him. There was an...odd calm to the demons here now.

He hurried away from the city. The Herald wasn’t there anymore.

\----  
-In Haven-

‘Have you heard?’ Cassandra asked over the war table. ‘The guards say of the villagers are angry. They fear a mob is forming.’

‘We should place more people around the cabin.’ Leliana said, pointing four of her people towards their destination. They were wearing plain clothes and wouldn’t be noticed.

‘You don’t think we should speak to them? Calm them?’ Josephine asked from the table’s end.

‘No.’ Leliana said. ‘Let them show themselves. Then we’ll have names and faces to shame.’

\----

Solas blinked.

There was _another_ four fingered elf in the Fade.

‘Hello?’ Solas said as friendly he could at the rather small, dark skinned woman who was standing next to a statue that was holding its own, horned head.

She was dressed in fine, thin fabric and feathers, meant for a warm place.  
She was looking around with wide, silver eyes and tugging at her long charcoal grey hair.

‘Is this where he went?’ She asked quietly. ‘This is where he disappeared to? This disgusting place?’

Solas went closer, but stopped when the woman’s eyes landed on him. He gave her a small wave.

It was an entirely friendly gesture but the woman’s expression twisted with apprehension. Her eyes darted over to the hand and much like the Herald had, stepped away from him.

‘Why do you have five fingers?’ The woman asked with a shaky voice. ‘Is it to fit in with the murderous humans?’

She shook her head before Solas could say anything. ‘Where is he? They said he had learned to do... _something_ to escape our prison, but this is absurd.’ She shook her head, her earrings jangling. ‘Not even our ancestors could do this. They’re been imprisoned so long. _Have dare he not free them?’_

‘Who are you looking for?’ Solas asked. ‘Perhaps I can help?’ The woman had to be talking about the Herald. They had the same features. Large eyes, long ears and four fingers.  
  
The Herald had escaped “their prison”? The woman’s words lead his thoughts towards the absurd.   
He needed to know more.

‘Help?’ The woman scoffed, narrowing her eyes at him. ‘What help can a false elf offer?’

‘ _False elf?’_ Solas repeated sharply.

The woman shook her head at him again, and placed her fingers on her temple, closing her eyes in concentration.

‘That damn healer Maaldri. She broke our bond, snapped it like a thread.’ She said, expression growing angry. ‘I was so happy when it all stopped. I could stop thinking about _him_. I thought it was a repulsive mistake cancelling itself!!’ She stomped the ground with a bare foot.

Solas took in every word, even though they made no sense to him.

‘Who are you looking for?’ He asked again, keeping his tone even.

‘ _Res_.’ The woman snapped and let her hand’s fall down to her side. ‘He tore a hole in the air and fled here, just to avoid me. He won’t look at me. I could barely get a word out of him!’ She curled her hands into fists. ‘It took me three hours to find him! I had to sneak into their blasted city. _Sneak_!’ She shrieked in outrage and whirled around on her heel and started walking in a seemingly random direction.

‘Did you...try and go through the gates?’ Solas asked and hurried after her.

‘Oh, _funny_ , false elf.’ The woman chortled dryly. ‘The guards know who I am. They won’t let me in, they have their orders.’

Solas let his eyes fall from the woman’s face to her upper arm. Three long, deep gashes went from her shoulder to elbow.

‘Did the guards do that? He asked, nodding to the wounds.

‘No.’ The woman sighed in a huff. ‘Ice-Cinder did. Terrible, feral _thing_. She caught me the second I got inside the wall. Claws like an animal! I barely got away from her!’ She stepped in a little puddle of water and bristled at it. ‘She _yelled_ at me! Attacked me! It was absolutely _horrific_!’

Solas raised an eyebrow. Apart from the gashes and a little stone dust on her dress she seemed fine.

‘He wasn’t even there!’ The woman fumed, shaking her fists and making her jewelry chime. ‘I got chased around for an hour and he wasn’t there!’ She held up a finger. ‘But I found him in the ruins! Took me two hours to work my way through them and he just…’ She tossed her arms about wildly. ‘Opens a hole in the air and bolts!’

‘ _How_?’ Solas asked and stopped. ‘How did he do that?’

The woman didn’t stop and just kept walking. ‘I have no idea! A hole in the air just appeared behind him! Outrageous! _We could all be free!’_ She said and walked around a big boulder.

Solas hurried after her, but she had vanished by the time got over to the boulder. Her footprints stopping abruptly.

She left him even more puzzled than before. At least he knew the Herald’s name now.

\---

Solas scrambled over some cliffs. He could hear Res’ voice.

Solas struggled to actually hear what was being said, but the Herald was upset and rambling. And seemingly talking to himself.

‘First of all. How dare you?’ Res snapped as Solas came round a rocky corner and close enough to actually hear anything. He slowed, edging along the rock until he came to the cliff’s corner.

‘It’s not like I meant for this to happen.’ He said in a much calmer tone. ‘And I didn’t think she would follow me here.’

‘Second, I have all the right in the world to be furious! You’ve made things so much worse!’ Res replied to himself, swinging back to an angerier tone.

Solas heard Res chuckling and peaked out from his cover.

He blinked.

Res was sitting at the end of a long dining table covered with plates of food. His arms were wrapped around himself, hand tugging at his pale coat.

The Pride demon, Sage, sat at the middle, looking ridiculously out of place. It was holding onto a very small goblet, seemingly looking at its reflection.

At the other end of the table sat Res. Another one, dressed in a darker coat and wearing a headband decorated with the Inquisition’s all-seeing eye. He looked far more relaxed and was smiling at his twin.

‘It’s really not that bad.’ The one with the Inquisition headgear said in a quiet tone.

‘Not that bad?’ The other one hissed and tossed a goblet at his twin. ‘ _NOT THAT BAD?’_

The calmer Res moved his head, letting the goblet smack into the chair behind him. He looked over to the Pride demon. ‘Was I really that upset?’ He dodged a plate. ‘I don’t remember getting so riled up by the mere mention of Feivin’s name?’ He dodge a ram head that had been on one of the plates. ‘Then again I don’t remember doing _this_.’ He dodged an unlit candelabra.

A chair came flying, but Sage caught it out of the air and sat it down firmly.

‘You made yourself forget.’ It rumbled, turning the goblet around with its claws and nodded at the other Res who was now curled in on himself, hand clutching his head.

‘ _How can you be surprised?!’_ Res snarled at his calmer twin, fingers digging into his scalp. ‘You see her again and you use that thing to flee to _this_ place.’

‘I panicked.’ The calmer one admitted. ‘First contact with her people in decades and Feivin suddenly shows up and wants to talk because Xirber has abandoned her for somebody else?’

‘Did you speak?’ The Pride demon rumbled.

‘She wants to “rekindle” our bond.’ The other Res muttered, rolling his eyes. ‘I still remember what she said ages ago. I’m not bedding her and giving her child.’

There was a thud at the other end of the table where the first Res was now slumped over, seemingly unconscious.

Solas blinked. _Unconscious in the Fade_?

‘Well, that does explain it.’ The other Res muttered and leaned back in his seat.

‘Is it something you do often?’ The demon asked, curious tone drowning in a rumble. ‘Force yourself to forget?’

‘I...don’t know.’ Res’ mouth twisted as he looked at his unconscious twin. ‘I have lot of holes in my memory, to be honest. Considering how fast he-...I can do th-’

‘ _There you are!’_ A woman’s voice exclaimed furiously.

Solas’ head snapped over in direction the of familiar voice.

The woman from before was making her way towards the table.

‘Feivin?’ The demon gumbled.

‘ _Feivin_.’ Res muttered and crossed his arms.

‘She’s short.’ The demon rumbled. ‘How is this small one able to terrorize you?’

‘Her oaf of a man is the terror, she’s just horribly dramatic.’ Res sighed.

‘ _I’m dramatic?!’_ Feivin exclaimed and walked closer to the table. ‘I want to talk with you and you open holes in the air to this disgusting place and I’m the dramatic one?!’

Res made a wailing sound as his hands flew to his head, voice becoming high pitched. ‘Oh woe! I have locked eyes with this mistake of a man! You are a mistake! A mistake! Elders! Punish me no more!’

After a few seconds of silence where Feivin simply glared and tapped her foot at him, Res let his hands fall back to the table. ‘Also? The Fade is a wonderful place! How dare you say that about Sage’s home?’

‘I did not say it like that!’ Feivin fumed, taking few steps closer. ‘You are bei-...’ She cut herself off as she spotted the unconscious Res at the other end of the table. ‘What?’ She muttered, looking from one Res to the nother. ‘Why…?’ She asked while changing her direction and headed for the less belligerent of the two.

Sage stood up abruptly, sending her several steps back in shock.

‘Better not mess with Sage. It likes its sun!’ Res said and got up from his seat and started backing away from the table.

Solas saw Res take off at full speed and…

The was a jump. A sharp jolt and the next thing he knew Feivin was gone as well.

The demon was back to sitting by the table again, holding the small goblet in its claws.

Res bolted awake as another jolt went through Solas.

‘- plant an axe in somebody’s head, who does tha-...hm?’  Res trailed off, blinking in confusion and looked over to Sage. ‘What...were we talking about?’

‘Relevance of cheese.’ Sage replied.

‘Oh!’ Res said, clapping his hands together.

‘Mage, wake up.’ A voice demanded, tearing at Solas, waking him up.

‘What?’ Solas asked, winching at the sensation of being ripped out of the Fade.

‘Some of the villagers stormed the Herald’s cabin!’ The voice snapped.

\----

Meanwhile, in the Haven chantry -

Leliana looked through the notes she had been able to gather on Cassandra’s prisoner.

What little there was made little sense.

She shifted through the notes. Several names of people and places that went absolutely nowhere.

Leliana looked over to the man’s sword.

Harritt had given it a lookover and told her he couldn’t tell her what kind of metal it was made of. Only that it was horrifically sharp and absurdly light for its build.

The man had no Vallaslin and neither she or her elven spies knew of any Dalish who dressed as he did.

Leliana looked over to tattered remains of the man’s coat that lay on a nearby chair.

They couldn’t even figure out what kind of fabric it was made of.

She shoved the notes to the side and focused on the large amount of letters on her desk.

They were coming in by the dozens. People asking for survivors,blame, relatives, damages.

Since it had slipped out the only survivor was an elf, letters from several Dalish clans had come in. Nearly all of them informed them said elf had nothing to do with them.

One stood out.

Leliana picked up Clan Lavellan’s letter, rereading it for the fourth time.

‘- _It has come to our attention that a member of our clan, Yion Lavellan is being held captive by your people. He went to the Conclave only to observe the peace talks between your mages and templars by my request, and we find it highly unlikely that he intentionally violated your customs._

_If he has been charged with a crime, we would appreciate hearing of it. If not, it would ease our concerns to hear from him to know that he remains with your group of his own will._

_We await your reply,_

_Keeper Istimaethorial Lavellan._ ’

Leliana put down the letter again. The man didn’t have any Vallaslin, but the letter was the only thing to go by.

She was about to look through another pile of letters when she heard yelling and several pairs of feet pounding against the floor above.

\------

There was yelling and screaming from the lowest of Haven’s districts.

‘Surrender! Surrender, damn it!’ Cullen roared over the sound of yelling and feet scuffling on the ground.

Several soldiers were dragging people away from the Herald’s cabin. Some were tossed out of Haven while others were headed towards the cells.

Solas raced down the stairs, rounded a corner and almost smacked into a horrified looking Roderick.

‘This...this isn’t...I didn’t mean…’ The chancellor said shakily, while a villager rushed past. Two dwarves were hanging onto the yelling man and alternated between punching and scolding him.

Solas reached the stone stairs just in time to see a screaming villager get tossed out the door, followed by a furious Cantaber.

‘The nerve of you people!’ The corporal snarled and marched over to the villager who was scrambling to get up from the ground. ‘That man tries to help seal the Breach and you lousy bastards break in and try to kill him while he’s out cold?!’

‘Monster!’ The villager yelled as he tried to get up. ‘Monster! Did you see what he did to Jorric?! Did you see?!’ He pointed back to the cabin door where light was streaming out into the darkness.

‘Jorric deserves worse, you little cretin!’ Cantaber snapped and punched the man back down onto the ground. ‘A lot worse!’ She punched the man again, picked him by his tunic and dragged him towards the village gates.

Solas rushed up the stairs, past soldiers with bruised faces and into the cabin.

‘Varric?’ Solas asked as he spotted the dwarf in the middle of the room. He was aiming his crossbow right at him, but quickly lowered it.

Res was asleep on the floor behind him. Cassandra was crouched beside him, seemingly trying to wake him.

‘That absolute bastard.’ Adan the alchemist swore, making Solas turn his head to the other side of the room. He was sitting by the writing desk, shaking like a leaf and staring at something past Solas.

He turned his head and nearly jumped out of own skin.

A man holding an ax above his head stood close to a small table near the bed.

‘What in…’ Solas started, taking a few steps back from the figure. The man was encased in stone, and looked like a wildly out of place statue. Cassandra’s sword was embedded in the side of the man’s neck.

‘Name’s Jorric.’ Varric said as he put Bianca on his back. ‘He slipped in while the others overpowered the guards.’

‘Why is _he_ out of bed?’ Solas asked while Cassandra gathered the sleeping elf from the floor and placed him back in bed.

He looked back to the man turned statue. ‘What happened?’  
  
‘He woke up when Jorric barged in.’ Cassandra said. ‘He was awake when I arrived, but fell asleep where he stood.’

‘I think it’s like that little trick he pulled with the Pride demon.’ Varric said and pulled the cover over Res. ‘Just a bit more...refined? Focused?’

Solas wanted to argue. There had been nothing “ _little_ ” about the way the Pride demon had been stopped. He looked back to Res who murmured in his sleep and turn onto his side. He could manipulate stone, encase people in it.

Res was a mage of some kind, he just couldn't wrap his head around _which kind_.

\----

He needed time to think about what he had witnessed in the Fade.

It all seemed so incredibly weird. Elves talking about being imprisoned, their ancestors being imprisoned and Res being able to escape.

Things were becoming quiet outside, letting him think.

He had had the absurd thought the other elf might, somehow have been an Evanuris. Shattered, twisted into a new shape when the Breach appeared. Possibly merging with a mage from the Conclave, _s_ _omehow_.

But the elf had been around before the explosion. The echo in the ruins showed that much.

Perhaps he should just observe the man, for now.

\-----

_—Day Three—_

_\- Early morning: Less thrashing. Some response to stimulus. Vitals seem solid._

_\- The locals are calling for this man’s death outside._

_\- Locals just tried to break in and murder my patient. Two soldiers are stationed outside the door now._

_-Locals are yelling again._

_\- Middle of the night: The idiots outside overwhelmed the guards and Jorric got inside. Tried to plant an ax in my skull. Patient woke up again, Jorric is...a statue. The stone floor melted around his feet and encased his entire body!_

_\- Patient has gone back to sleep after having spent several minutes looking at me while I was yelling at Jorric’s statue._

_\- Locals are being tossed into the cells or ordered to leave Haven._

_-Mage tells me Jorric is dead. They’re trying to chip him free from the floor now._

_\- The Nightingale seems to think Jorric can be of some use and has ordered the soldiers to bring the statue to the chantry._

_\- All this work to save this man’s life, are they’re still going to execute him?_

_Will inform Lady Cassandra I expect him to wake before the morn._

 


	15. A comfy cabin and crowds

‘This is a weird prison.’ Res said to himself as he sat, cross legged on a rather nice and comfy bed that was slightly too small for his legs.

He had been awake for ten minutes and spent five of those minutes trying to figure out if he was delusional, since he had woken up in what appeared to be a nice little cabin.

It was warm thanks to a rather big fireplace some distance away from his bed. The walls were decorated with pictures and several small animal pelts.

In general it was absurdly homely for a prison.

‘Caw!’

A big raven flapped its wings in its cage in the corner furthest away from him.

Res tilted his head at the bird.

‘These humans are odd.’ He said in the bird’s direction. ‘I’m suspected to have destroyed one of their buildings and killed a thousand people. Yet here I am, waking up in nice little bed.’

The bird mimicked Res’ head tilt.

‘Maybe it’s just cruel trick?’ Res asked. ‘Wake up in a nice place like this, and then the guards show up with the axes?’ He let his arms rest on his knees while his hands held up his head. ‘The thing about the Outside humans back home? They’re very straightforward, from what I remember being told. They see an elf and they kill it.’ He frowned. ‘Unless they have a god. Then they torture and then kill it.’

The bird harshly cawed at him.

‘Yes, yes, I get it.’ He said, holding up his hands in a defensive manner. ‘Clearly, I’m nowhere close to the Shadowgrounds anymore. For all I know, I’m on the other side of the world. It’s not fair to hold these humans up against their...brutal cousins back home.’ Res let his hands fall down to the bed and leaned on them.

He stretched out his legs and let his feet fall down cabin’s stone floor, bare feet coming in contact with a fur rug.

He got up carefully, expecting his body to be aching and sore, but he felt...fine.

_Wonderful even._

\----

To his growing puzzlement, he found the staff and the daggers near a bookshelf.

Both the staff and the blades looked incredibly battered now, and Res was somewhat amazed the staff could actually stand up against the wall without falling in on itself.

He moved over to the cabin’s writing desk, eyes landing on a long, a dark coat that hung over the chair. Next to it, on the the ground stood a pair of knee high boots that had thick, metallic soles.

They were very reminiscent of the footwear the trolls used back home, he thought reaching for the coat.

Last he saw his own coat, it had been in absolute tatters, leaving him in his dark green tunic and pants.

He pulled it off the chair and studied it.

It was no wrapstuff fabric, that was for sure. It was heavier and thicker than his old one had been. He pulled it on and found it comfortable enough.

\-----

A few minutes later, his feet were firmly secured in the boots and he was trying to decipher a lengthy note when he heard the cabin’s door opened.

The elven youngster he had seen before came in, a small box in their hands. They came to a stop as their eyes landed on his bed and found it empty.

A pair of hazy, grey-green eyes darted around the cabin, managed to miss him twice, before finally registering what they were looking at.

‘Oh!’ The youngster exclaimed with a bright voice, dropping the box they were carrying. ‘I didn’t know you were awake, I swear!’ They said nervously as they moved a few steps back. A young woman, Res decided.

He blinked at the youth and turned fully in her direction.

‘Is this some kind of very weird prison?’ Res asked with a head tilt. ‘Why are you scared?’

‘ I… no? I mean, I don’t think so.’ The young woman said, wringing her hands.

‘Then where am I? Te-’ Res started, but cut himself short when the girl fell to her knees in a beseeching manner. ‘O _h my stars, get back on your feet, child!’_ He hissed in a flustered tone.

‘I beg your forgiveness and your blessing. I am but a humble servant.’ The girl said and stayed where she was.

‘ _Servant?_ What is this? Blue Mountain?’ Res asked incredulously. ‘Get up on your feet.’

‘You’re back in Haven, my lord.’ The girl said, seemingly bent on appearing as harmless as possible.

‘ _Lord?_ ’ Res repeated, pulling his shoulders up to his ears. He felt ill at ease when some of the Timeless tried to use honorifics towards the children or grandchildren of the tribe’s founders. This...felt was _worse_ . ‘ _Please_ get up. Stop bowing.’

‘They say you saved us.’ The younger elf explained. ‘The breach stopped growing, just like the mark on your hand. It’s all anyone has talked about for the last three days!’

Res looked to his the mark on his hand. It glowed very brightly, but did little else. He frowned, vaguely remembering being blasted away by the big rift.

‘The Breach was still in the sky when I got flung away from the rift beneath it.’ Res said, schooling his face into a friendlier expression.

‘It’s still there.’ The other elf said helpfully, bowing their head.

‘Enough with that!’ Res exclaimed, waving a hand. ‘What’s your name?’

‘It’s...it’s Arille, my Lord.’ The girl said hesitantly, head still bowed.

‘Arille, please stand up?’ Res asked gently. ‘We...do not have servants where I’m from. This...display makes me uncomfortable.’

Arille got on her feet in an instant.

‘I assume the trial Cassandra mentioned will be taking place soon?’ Res asked after a few seconds.

‘I don’t know anything about that.’ Arille said. ‘I’m sure Lady Cassandra will want to know you’ve wakened. She said ‘at once’!’ She started backing away from him, going for the door.

‘And where is the Seeker?’ Res asked taking few steps towards the other elf. ‘Does she still have my sword?’  

‘In the Chantry with the Lord Chancellor. 'At once,’ she said!’ Arille exclaimed and bolted out the door.

Res groaned.

\----

A few minutes later, Res made his way towards the door and opened it to see about fifty people line the path from his cabin into the heart of the village. He shut the door again, blinking at the wood.

The crow cawed at him from the other room.

‘I feel like that’s very easy for you to say.’ Res said quietly and looked at the things in the entry. ‘Last I saw these people they had named me mass murderer.’ He eyed some of the baskets. _Everything looked very intere_ -

‘CAW!’

‘There’s fifty people waiting for me.’ Res hissed at the bird. ‘You can expect me to just go-’

‘CAW!’

‘I think you’re being unre-’

‘CAW!’

‘You alright in there?’ The voice of Cantaber said from outside, stopping the absurd argument.

‘I’m...fine.’ Res grumbled in defeat, but felt...happy to learn Cantaber was around. ‘I’m just having an argument with a bird and I’m losing...’

‘Nobody is going to attack you.’ Cantaber said through the door. ‘I’ll take care of them if they do.’

‘Fine,fine.’ Res sighed, took a deep breath and opened the door.

\----

The gathered people talked to each other as he went past, Cantaber in tow.

‘ _That’s him. That’s the Herald of Andraste. They said when he came out of the Fade, Andraste herself was watching over him_.’

‘ _Hush! We shouldn’t disturb him_!’

‘ _Why did Lady Cassandra have him in chains? I thought Seekers knew everything._ ’

‘ _It’s complicated. We were all frightened after the explosion at the Conclave._ ’

‘ _It isn’t complicated. Andraste herself blessed him!_ ’

Res didn’t like the sound of it and hurried up the stone stairs Cassandra had dragged him down days ago.

There were so many people! All of them standing around to look at him. The soldiers were all standing with their heads bowed, one fist over their hearts.

‘ _That’s him. He stopped the Breach from getting any bigger_.’  

_‘I heard he was supposed to close it entirely. Still, it’s more than anyone else has done. Demons would have had us otherwise_.’

‘ _Good luck sealing those rifts_.’

‘Mmhm.’ Res hummed nervously and moved up the next set of stairs.

‘- _he killed Jorric_.’

Res’ eye flickered over in the direction of the voice, seeing two men huddled to together.

‘ _We’ve talked about this! It was self defense_.’

‘ _But h_ -’

‘ _No. Jorric went into that cabin and tried to murder an unconscious man! Adan says Jorric went after him too_!’

‘ _I-I didn’t know that_...’

‘ _Then keep your stupid mouth shut, you arse! He can hear you_!’

More people were gathered around the chantry.

‘ _Chancellor Roderick says that the Chantry wants nothing to do with us.’_

‘ _I don’t think Chancellor Roderick’s opinion matters, Sister._ ’

Res hurried past them, shoved open the doors and darted inside with Cantaber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That cabin is actually ridiculously well guarded.


	16. The bullying of Roderick

‘Interesting. _Terrifying_ , but interesting.’ Res gasped as he collapsed against the door. He looked up Cantaber as she placed a hand on his shoulder as support.

‘I...killed somebody in my sleep?’ He asked quietly. ‘Please explain?’

‘A coward arse named Jorric.’ Cantaber said with steely expression. ‘Somebody got some of the villagers worked up into a mob last night.’ She caught his horrified look. ‘They’re gone now. Tossed out on their arses and sent away. We have their names and their faces.’

‘How...did I kill this man?’ Res asked, but he has his suspicions.

‘With that rock magic of yours.’ Cantaber said. ‘Bloody effective work. I don’t think he realized what happened to him.’

‘Ah...so there’s a life-like statue of a man somewhere?’ Res said, head tilting to the side. ‘And the rest aren’t angry?’

‘Only with Jorric and his lot.’ Cantaber said, crossing her arms. ‘You just don’t attack a sleeping man.’

\----

Res eyed the door at the other end of the hallway.

‘Do you know who got them riled up?’ He asked as he pushed off the door and made his way towards the other one.

‘We have our suspensions, but no proof.’ Cantaber said and patted him on the back. ‘You have nothing to fear from the remaining people of Haven, you have my word.’

‘I...thank you.’ Res said, coming to a sudden stop, feeling sparks of fear vanish. He looked up to Cantaber. ‘Um, my name is Res.’

‘Dicia Cantaber.’ Cantaber said and held out a hand for him to take.

As he did, he could voice from inside the room.

‘ _Have you gone completely mad? He should be taken to Val Royeaux immediately, to be tried by whomever becomes Divine!_ ’ The voice of Chancellor Roderick, if he remember right. Demanding a trial this time.

‘In your opinion…’ Res started quietly as they walked. ‘Who riled up the people?’

‘Roderick.’ Cantaber replied without a second thought.

_‘I do not believe he is guilty._ ’ That sounded remarkably like Cassandra.  

‘ _The elf failed, Seeker. The Breach is still in the sky. For all you know, he intended it this way_.’ Roderick argued.  

_‘I do not believe that.’_ Cassandra rebuffed.  

‘ _That is not for you to decide. Your duty is to the serve the Chantry._ ’ Roderick went on.

‘ _My duty is to serve the principles on which the Chantry was founded, Chancellor. As is yours._ ’ Cassandra said firmly.

It sounded like a power struggle, he thought back.

_\- ‘Is anybody actually in charge here?’-_

\- _‘You_ _killed everybody in charge!’_ -

\- ‘ _That’s a no, then?_ -

‘Still no real leader I gather?’ Res whispered to Cantaber as they came to stop a few feet from the door.

‘No. They’ve been arguing since we brought you back to Haven.’ Cantaber whispered back. ‘We wanted to place you in the chantry, but the chancellor refused to let us. Made a bloody big number out of it too.’ She lifted her arms in a barricading manner, frowning grimly.  “I will not allow the chantry to be burdened by this man’s presence.”

Res chuckled at her expression. ‘He’s very eager to have me gone.’ He tilted his head to the side.

The Chancellor had been barking orders when they had first met him, Res recalled. He didn’t seem to have much power over Cassandra and Leliana though.

_‘You are a glorified clerk. A bureaucrat!’_

‘Leliana and Cassandra. They outrank Roderick, correct? They were closer to the Divine?’

‘They are the Right and Left Hand of the Divine.’ Cantaber nodded.

‘What is Roderick’s position?’ He asked. ‘We don’t have...chancellors or bureaucrats where I’m from. Cassandra made him sound...insignificant.’

‘He handled correspondence for the Divine, spreading her word to the rest of the Chantry.’ Cantaber replied. ‘Would advise her on mundane matters.’ She nodded towards the door. ‘Any Chantry officials who outranked him all died at the Conclave.’

‘I see. That does explain his behaviour.’ Res nodded to Cantaber and pushed open the door to see Roderick, Cassandra and Leliana standing around a long table.

‘Chain him.’ Roderick ordered two templar guards that stood on either side of the door. ‘I want him prepared for travel to the capital for trial.’

‘Really now, you’re talking about a trial too, Chancellor?’ Res snapped, making the other man jerk back in surprise. ‘You’re so eager to see me gone and dead. Are you unable to wield a sword and do it yourself? Or just unwilling?’

He turned sharply to face the guards, eyebrow raised. ‘Well, are you going to obey him or what?’ He held out his arms towards them, going with a little hunch he had.

The two guards stayed perfectly still.

Res turned around to face Roderick with narrowed eyes. ‘Might have to chain me yourself, Chancellor.’ He said and walked up to the table, eyes staying on Roderick who took a few steps away from the table.

‘Disregard that, and leave us.’ Cassandra ordered, looking up from a rather massive book.

The guards saluted and left the room. Abandoning Roderick.

To the man’s credit, he didn’t let that stop him.

‘You walk a dangerous line, Seeker.’ Roderick said, turning his attention back to Cassandra.

‘I think she’s doing fine.’ Res said and leaned in over the table, deciding to push the man. ‘The soldiers _obeyed_ her, didn’t you notice?’

Roderick stood at the table’s end, somewhat trapped between Res and Cassandra forcing him up against the wall.

‘Stop talking to me!’ He demanded sharply, his hands balling into fists.

‘ _Make me, Chancellor_.’ Res snapped, leaning in further.

Roderick’s mouth twisted, but he stayed where he was.

The man could bark, but had little to no bite, it seemed.

‘The Breach is stable, but it is still a threat. I will not ignore it.’ Cassandra interrupted, breaking the staring match between the two men.

‘I did everything I could to close the Breach. It almost killed me. It actually blinded me, if I recall correctly?’ He looked over to Cassandra who nodded.

‘Yet you live. A convenient result, insofar as you’re concerned.’ Roderick fired back.

‘Of the four of us in this room, I’m the most surprised by that, I can assure you.’ Res said and stood up to his full height and crossed his arms. ‘I’m surprised I’m even _here_ . I’d have thought you would have convinced people to break into my cabin and have me carted off while I was out cold. _Or have them kill me_.’

Roderick flinched, making Res’ expression darken.

‘Have a care, Chancellor. The Breach is not the only threat we face.’ Cassandra said, breaking up the two men’s bricking.

‘Someone was behind the explosion at the Conclave.’ Leliana said, stepping closer to Cassandra and gave Roderick a pointed look. ‘Someone Most Holy did not expect. Perhaps they died with the others – or have allies who yet live.”

_‘I_ am a suspect?’ Roderick exclaimed in genuine shock.

‘You, and many others.’ Leliana replied sharply.

‘But _not_ the prisoner.’ Roderick said giving Res a pointed look.

Res rolled his eyes at Roderick. ‘I seem to recall being the first and _only_ suspect? Made to bare the guilt of a thousand dead?’

‘I heard the voices in the temple. The Divine called to _him_ for help.’ Cassandra said, giving Res a nod. ‘He interfered with the people behind the explosion, but he was not working with them.’

‘He told me he tried to help Justinia.’ Leliana said firmly. ‘I believe him.’

‘So his survival, that _thing_ on his hand – all a coincidence?’ Roderick asked incredulously.

‘Providence. The Maker sent him to us in our darkest hour.’ Cassandra stated firmly.

Roderick’s expression twisted sharply.

Res made a note to figure out who ‘the Maker’ was, as it likely wasn’t his mother or wild and potent magic fueled by the wish to be alone.

‘You’ve changed your mind about me, I heard?’ Res asked giving Cassandra a nod.

‘I was wrong.’ Cassandra said evenly. ‘Perhaps I still am. I will not, however, pretend you were not exactly what we needed when we needed it.’

‘The Breach remains and your mark is our only hope of closing it.’ Leliana said, catching Res’ eyes.

Cassandra turned and made her way over to a bookshelf and pulled out a rather small, but immensely thick book.

‘This is _not_ for you to decide.‘ Roderick snapped in Leliana’s direction.

‘ _Why_ are you here, Chancellor?’ Res queried. ‘You’re very eager to see me gone, but you don’t have the nerve to chain me, can’t order anybody to do it for you and you seem _very_ determined to hinder people willing to stop Breach.’

‘What are you implying?’ Roderick asked angrily.

‘What does it _sound_ like?’ Res growled, just as Cassandra returned with the book and slammed it into the table, making Roderick jump slightly.

‘You know what this is, Chancellor?’ Cassandra asked aggressively. ‘A writ from the Divine, granting us authority to act. As of this moment, I declare the Inquisition _reborn_.’ She moved towards Roderick, who began moving backwards.

‘We will close the Breach, we will find those responsible, and we will restore order with or without your approval.’ Cassandra declared and jabbed Roderick in the chest, pushing him further back, past Res.

Roderick sent Res one final glare, turned on his heel and left the room quickly.

Silence fell over the room.

\----

‘A war.’ Res stated after a lengthy explanation from the two women. ‘You’re trying to start a war.’

‘We are already at war. _You_ are already involved.’ Cassandra said sternly and pointed to his left hand. ‘Its mark is upon you.’

Res nodded, hearing Cassandra’s response as a reminder that he couldn’t really leave.

He let his thumb glide over the palm of his marked hand, feeling the new grooves the mark had made. It hummed faintly under his thumb.

Three days ago he had wanted nothing more than escape from these people and find his way home, fighting his pain and misery with each step.

Three days of mostly sound sleep, odd dreams and all bruises healed, it was now the furthest thought away from his mind.

He would blame his boundless curiosity for the sudden change, always overpowering and drowning his other emotions.

But really, he had no idea where he was. It would be safer to stay with this... _Inquisition_ and its people, rather than rushing heedlessly into the unknown where people could attack him before he got anywhere.

There was also the matter of his very much missing orb.

If it was in one piece, it would find its way back to him, given enough time. It would have an easier time if he stayed put.

He was stuck no matter what.

For some reason it didn’t bother him as much as it should.


End file.
